IN  THE  RUSSIAN  RANKS 


IN  THE 
RUSSIAN  RANKS 

A  Soldiers  Account  of 
the  Fighting  in  Poland 

BY 

JOHN  MORSE 

Englishman 


', 


ILLUSTRATED  WITH 
REPRODUCTIONS  OF  PHOTOGRAPHS 


NEW     YORK 

GROSSET  &   DUNLAP 

PUBLISHERS 


PBHTTED  IK  THE  UNITED  STATES  07  AMEEICA 


CONTENTS 

CHAPTER  PAQB 

I      THE  OUTBREAK  OF  THE  GREAT  WAR  1 

n  THE  SCENE  AT  KALISZ  ON  THE  2nD  AUGUST^  1914  11 

m  THE  EVENTS  PRECEDING  ACTUAL  HOSTHJTIEa  19 

IT  THE  FffiST  FIGHT  3d' 

Y  THE  FIGHTING  UP  TO  THE  26tH  AUGUST  47 

TI  THE  CAVALRY  FIGHTING  BEFORE  KOENIGSBEEG  62 

rU      THE  FIRST   INVASION   OF  EAST  PRUSSIA,   AND   THB 

RETREAT  73 

VIU      THE  KAISER  NOT  A  SUCCESSFUL  GENERAL  93 

IS      CHIEFLY  PERSONAL  MATTER  104 

X      THE  FIGHTING  OF  THE  VISTULA  IN  THE  MONTH  OF 

OCTOBER,   1914  117 

XI  THE  RETREAT  OF  THE  GERMANS  FROM  THE  VISTULA  141 

XII  AN   INFANTRY   RECONNAISSANCE  155 

Xm  THE  butcher's  BILL  TO  THE  END  OF  1914  165 

SIV  "do  not  FIRE  ON  YOUR  COMRADES"  168 

XV  SMALL  AFFAIRS  AND  PERSONAL  ADVENTURES  178 

XVI  A  NIGHT  ATTACK  ON  A  BRIDGE-HEAD  188 

XVn      THE   FIGHTING   NEAR    SKYERMEVICE   ON  THE   3rD, 

4th,  and  5th  FEBRUARY  201 

XVIII      CHIEFLY  GOSSIP  220 

XIX      THE  FIGHTING  BEFORE  PLOCK  228 

XX     HARD  MARCHING  AND  DESULTORY  FIGHTLNQ  241 


CONTENTS 

CHAPTER  PAGE 

XXI     RECONNAISSANCE  AND  TEENCH  FIGHTING  253 

XXn      FROM     THE     TRENCHES     OF     PRZASNTSZ     TO    THE 

CAMP  OF  MAKOW  269 

XXm     A  RIDE  TOWARDS  OSTROLENKA  280 

XXIV     A  PRISONER  IN  GERMAN  HANDS  303 

XXV     ADVENTURES  DURING  THE  EFFORT  TO  ESCAPE  321' 

XXVI     MT  LAST  DATS  IN  RUSSIA  333 


AN  ENGLISHMAN  IN  THE 
RUSSIAN  RANKS 

CHAPTEK  I 

THE   OUTBBEAX    OF   THE    GE.EAT    WAE 

On  the  1st  July,  1914,  if  I  could  have  seen  one  step 
ahead  in  my  life's  course,  this  book  would  not  have 
been  written.  On  the  day  named  I  crossed  the  Ger- 
man frontier  west  of  Metz;  and,  for  the  first  time, 
beheld  the  territory  of  the  Hun. 

Always  a  student  of  military  matters,  at  this  hour 
I  loved  war,  and  all  that  pertained  to  war;  now  I 
loathe  it  with  an  ineradicable  hate  and  disgust,  and 
hope  never  again  to  see  ground  crimsoned  with  blood. 

But  at  this  time  I  had  heard  no  hint  of  war  in  the 
centre  of  Europe  and  of  civilization,  and  no  thoughts 
were  farther  from  my  mind  than  those  of  martial 
contention. 

My  object  in  going  to  Germany  was  business ;  but 
also  to  spend  a  holiday  in  a  country  I  had  heard 
friends  praise  for  its  beauty  and  hospitality;  and 
particularly  I  wished  to  visit  places  renowned  in  his- 
tory, art  and  romance.  Little  I  dreamed  that  I  was 
to  see  a  horrible  blight,  a  foul  leprosy,  settle  on  much 
that  had  a  hallowed  past  for  every  cultivated  intellect. 


2        AN  ENGLISHMAN  IN  THE  RUSSIAN  RANKS 

I  arrived  at  Metz  from  Paris  via  Chalons  and  Ver- 
dun ;  and,  as  my  time  and  means  were  both  limited,  I 
went  on,  after  only  two  days'  delay,  to  Mayence  and 
Frankfort,  and  thence  to  Leipzig,  where  I  had  some 
business  to  transact.  On  the  16th  July  I  was  at 
Dresden ;  on  the  20th  at  Breslau ;  and  on  the  22nd  I 
arrived  at  Ostrovo,  a  small  German  town  barely  ten 
miles  from  the  Russian  frontier,  and  not  more  than 
twelve,  English  measurement,  from  Kalisz,  which  is 
the  capital  of  a  Polish  province  of  the  same  name. 

At  Ostrovo  I  went,  by  previous  invitation,  to  the 
house  of  a  German  friend,  from  whom  I  received  the 
most  kindly  treatment,  and  to  whom  I  owe  my  liberty 
and  possibly  my  life.  It  will  be  obvious  that  I  can- 
not reveal  the  name  of  this  person,  nor  the  nature  of 
my  business  with  him.  It  was  my  intention  to  re- 
main a  month  at  Ostrovo,  which  was  a  convenient 
place  from  whence  to  make  excursions  to  some  of  the 
most  interesting  Prussian  towns. 

I  loved  the  sight  of  armed  men;  and  during  my 
journey,  as  opportunities  occurred,  I  watched  the 
soldiers  I  saw  in  the  various  cities  I  passed  through. 
I  could  not  fail  to  notice  the  great  difference  in  the 
military  forces  of  the  two  countries  —  Prance  and 
Germany.  On  the  Continent  one  expects  to  see  a 
more  prominent  display  of  soldiers  than  is  usually  the 
case  in  our  own  quiet  island  home ;  but  there  was  no 
great  parade  of  the  military  element  in  any  of  the 
French  garrisons  I  passed  through.  In  all  the  large 
towns  a  force  of  some  kind  was  stationed ;  but  in  so 
important  a  place  as  Verdun  there  did  not  appear  to 


THE  OUTBREAK  OP  THE  GREAT  WAR      3 

be  a  stronger  military  garrison  than  one  would  see  at 
such  stations  in  England  as  Plymouth  or  Chatham. 
In  the  French  fortress  I  saw  a  battalion  marching  to 
the  music  of  bugles.  The  men  did  not  exceed  600  in 
number.  In  another  part  of  the  town  about  150  in- 
fantry were  drilling;  and  many  artillerymen  were 
walking  about;  yet  the  numbers  showed  plainly  that 
France  was  not  mobilizing  at  this  time. 

As  soon  as  the  frontier  was  passed  I  saw  that  quite 
a  different  state  of  things  existed.  As  I  left  the  rail- 
way-station at  Metz  three  battalions  marched  by  — 
two  of  a  line  regiment,  and  a  battalion  of  riflemen,  or 
jagers,  distinguished  by  wearing  shakos  instead  of  the 
nearly  universal  PickeUiaube,  or  spiked  helmet. 
These  battalions  were  quite  a  thousand  strong  in  each 
case.  In  other  words,  they  had  their  full  war  com- 
plement of  men.  A  regiment  of  hussars  was  600 
strong ;  and  field-artillery,  with  fifty-six  guns,  besides 
machine-guns,  extended  about  a  mile  and  a  half  along 
one  of  the  country  roads.  Everywhere  in  Germany 
the  towns,  large  and  small,  were  crowded  with  sol- 
diers. Cavalry  and  artillery  and  long  lines  of  wag- 
gons lined  the  country  highways  and  byways.  I  re- 
marked on  this  to  a  fellow-passenger  who  spoke  Eng- 
lish. His  reply  was  that  the  troops  were  assembling 
for  the  autumn  manoeuvres.  I  was  sufficiently  sur- 
prised to  exclaim: — 

"  What !     Already  ?  " 

"  It  is  rather  early,  but  they  are  probably  going  to 
have  preliminary  exercises  in  the  forest-lands,"  was 
the  reply. 


4  AN  ENGLISHMAN  IN  THE  RUSSIAN  RANKS 

After  this  I  perceived  tlie  passenger  was  re- 
garding me  with  a  peculiar  air;  and,  recollect- 
ing certain  cautions  I  had  received  concerning  the 
danger  of  making  inquiries  about  the  movements 
of  troops  on  the  Continent,  I  did  not  recur  to  the 
subject. 

At  Dresden  a  large  number  of  troops,  infantry  and 
cavalry,  were  departing  northward  by  rail  and  road. 
At  Breslau  at  least  20,000  men  of  all  arms  were  con- 
centrated. These  circumstances  had  no  particular 
significance  to  my  mind  at  the  time,  but  a  very  great 
one  a  few  days  later. 

Even  when  I  arrived  at  Ostrovo  and  found  the 
country-side  crowded  with  troops,  impending  war  did 
not  occur  to  my  thoughts,  though  I  did  ponder  on  the 
extraordinary  precautions  Germany  seemed  to  be  tak- 
ing to  insure  the  inviolability  of  her  powerful  do- 
main. Kow  I  know,  of  course,  that  the  mendacious 
Hun,  with  the  low  cunning  of  a  murderous  maniac, 
was  preparing  for  a  blood-feast,  before  a  taint  of  it 
was  floating  in  the  surrounding  air;  and  if  it  is 
thought  that  I  am  putting  the  case  strongly,  I  shall 
have  that  to  relate  shortly  which  would  make  it  re- 
markable if  I  were  not  to  use  forcible  language. 
Blood  and  lust:  lust  and  blood  —  this  is  the  awful 
and  disgusting  story  I  have  to  tell  —  a  story  set  in 
military  surroundings  which,  for  skill  and  magni- 
tude, have  never  previously  been  approached;  but 
military  ability  and  the  hugeness  of  the  operations 
have  only  intensified  the  hellish  misery  of  this  the 
vastest  struggle  the  world  has  seen.     And  that  it  may 


THE  OUTBREAK  OF  THE  GREAT  WAR      5 

never  again  see  such  must  be  the  universal  prayer 
to  God. 

In  Germany  it  is  the  custom  to  billet  soldiers  on  the 
people,  and  most  of  the  houses  at  Ostrovo  were  full  of 
men  whose  behaviour,  even  to  their  own  countrymen, 
was  sickening  in  its  utter  lack  of  decency.  Com- 
plaints against  soldiers  have  to  be  very  strongly  cor- 
roborated before  their  officers  or  the  magistracy  of  the 
land  take  serious  note  of  them. 

In  my  friend's  house  some  officers  of  the  — tli 
regiment  were  lodged.  With  these  I  speedily  be- 
came on  friendly  terms,  and,  through  them,  with 
officers  of  other  German  corps,  particularly  with 
those  of  a  Pomeranian  artillery  regiment,  one  of 
whom  was  a  quiet  and  affable  little  gentleman.  With 
him  I  thought  I  might  venture  to  discuss  military 
matters,  and  on  the  28th  July  the  following  con- 
versation took  place  between  us.  I  should  premise 
that  I  cannot  read  or  speak  German  and  that  I  had 
not  seen  an  English  newspaper  for  more  than  a  week 
previously.  Certain  information  had  been  communi- 
cated to  me  by  my  friend,  but  I  had  not  been  given 
to  understand  that  war  was  imminent  between  Ger- 
many and  Russia,  or  any  other  nation. 

"  All  your  units  are  very  strong,"   I  remarked. 

Is  it  usual  for  you  to  embody  your  reserves  for  the 
manoeuvres  ? " 

"  Our  troops  are  not  on  manceuvre.     We  are  go- 
ing to  fight,"  was  the  officer's  reply. 

"  Fight ! "     I      exclaimed,       much      astonished. 
"  Whom  are  you  going  to  fight  ?  " 


t( 


6         AN  ENGLISHMAN  IN  THE  RUSSIAN  RANKS 

"  The  Russians  and  the  French." 

"  The  two  most  powerful  nations  in  the  world ! 
Are  you  strong  enough  to  do  that  ?  "  I  said,  amazed, 
and  hardly  able  to  believe  that  I  had  heard  aright. 

"  The  Austrians  are  going  to  join  with  us,  and  we 
shall  be  in  Paris  in  a  month." 

I  laughed  —  rather  scornfully,  I  think. 

"  Are  you  joking  ?  Is  not  what  you  say  absurd  ?  " 
I  asked. 

"  l^ot  in  the  least.  You  will  see  that  what  I  say 
is  correct." 

"  But  is  war  declared  ?  Has  the  matter  been  dis- 
cussed in  the  Press  ?  " 

"  In  this  country  we  do  not  permit  the  Press  to 
make  the  announcement  of  such  things.  War  is  not 
declared  yet,  but  it  will  be  on  Sunday  next." 

"  Against  Russia,  you  mean  ?  "  said  I,  astonished 
beyond  degree  of  expression. 

"  Yes,  and  against  Prance  too,"  replied  the  officer. 

"  But  why  ?  I  have  not  heard  that  Prance  has 
given  cause  of  offence  to  your  country." 

"  She  has  been  a  standing  menace  to  us  for  years, 
and  will  continue  to  be  so  until  she  is  completely 
crushed." 

This  is  how  I  heard  that  the  Great  War  was  about 
to  begin.  I  hardly  believed  it,  but  my  friend  read 
m.e  certain  passages  from  German  newspapers,  and 
the  following  day  I  received  a  batch  of  journals  from 
my  own  country,  which,  together,  showed  that  the 
political  situation  of  Europe  was  rapidly  becoming 
serious. 


THE  OUTBREAK  OF  THE  GREAT  WAR      7 

On  the  SOth  I  noticed  a  change  of  countenance  on 
the  part  of  most  of  the  officers  who  had  been  friendly 
with  me.  The  young  artillery  officer  I  have  men- 
tioned and  a  Colonel  Swartz,  who  was,  I  believe,  a 
Landwehr  officer  of  the  99th  regiment,  continued 
their  friendly  behaviour  towards  me.  Swartz  was 
shortly  afterwards  killed  near  Turek,  where  his  bat- 
talion was  destroyed. 

Early  in  the  evening  of  the  31st,  a  lady  came  to 
my  friend's  house  and  strongly  advised  me  to  quit 
the  country  without  delay.  She  gave  as  a  reason 
that  she  had  received  a  letter  from  her  brother,  an 
officer  in  the  foot-guards  at  Berlin,  in  which  he  de- 
clared that  it  was  well  known  that  the  Kaiser  intended 
to  send  an  ultimatum  to  England,  and  that  a  rupture 
with  this  country  was  the  almost  inevitable  conse- 
quence. My  friend  backed  the  lady's  advice,  and  mj 
own  opinion  was  that  it  would  be  wise  of  me  to  re- 
turn home  at  once. 

But  later  that  night  Swartz  and  the  young  officer 
came  and  declared  that  it  was  almost  impossible  for 
me  to  get  out  of  Germany  by  any  of  the  usual  chan- 
nels before  war  was  declared,  as  nearly  all  the  lines 
were  required  for  the  movements  of  troops  and  ma- 
terial. Swartz  said  that  it  would  take  at  least  four 
days  for  a  civilian  to  reach  France  by  railway.  I 
suggested  a  motor-car,  but  he  thought  that  all  motors 
would  immediately  be  confiscated  —  at  any  rate, 
those  driven  by  foreigners. 

The  above  circumstances  and  the  date,  of  the  cor- 
rectness of  which  I  am  quite  sure,  show  that  the 


8  AN  ENGLISHMAN  IN  THE  RUSSIAN  RANKS 

German  Sovereign  had  preconceived  war,  not  only 
with  France  and  Russia,  but  also  with  England,  be- 
fore the  actual  declaration  of  hostilities. 

Down  to  this  time,  and  until  several  days  later,  I 
did  not  hear  Belgium  mentioned  in  connection  with 
the  war,  and  for  several  reasons,  not  the  least  of 
which  was  my  ignorance  of  the  German  and  Russian 
languages,  many  facts  relating  to  the  operations  of 
the  Allies  on  the  Western  line  of  hostilities  did  not 
become  known  to  me  until  some  time  after  they  had 
taken  place.  It  must  not  be  forgotten  that  this  book 
is  in  no  sense  a  history  of  the  Great  "War,  but  simply 
a  narrative  of  my  experiences  with  the  Russian  Army 
in  certain  areas  of  the  Eastern  line  of  operations. 
These  experiences  I  purpose  to  give  in  diary  form, 
and  with  little  or  no  reference  to  the  fighting  in  other 
parts  of  the  war  area,  of  which  I  knew  almost  nothing 
—  or  at  any  rate,  nothing  that  was  very  reliable. 

All  day  on  the  31st  July  it  was  persistently  de- 
clared at  Ostrovo  that  war  had  been  declared  against 
Russia  and  against  France,  and  that  it  would  be 
declared  against  England  on  the  morrow,  which  was 
Saturday,  the  1st  August.  The  persons  who  were 
responsible  for  these  assertions  were  the  Army  officers 
with  whom  I  came  in  contact,  and  the  people  gen- 
erally of  all  classes.  Not  a  word  was  said  about 
Belgium. 

On  the  afternoon  of  the  1st  August  the  Kaiser  is 
said  to  have  ordered  the  mobilization  of  the  German 
Army.  The  German  Army  was  already  mobilized 
so  far  as  the  Russian  frontier  was  concerned,  and 


THE  OUTBREAK  OF  THE  GREAT  WAR      9 

had  been  so  for  eight  or  nine  days.  On  the  line  be- 
tween i^eustadt-Baranow,  a  distance  of  about  eighty 
English  miles,  there  were  concentrated  five  army- 
corps,  with  three  cavalry  divisions,  about  250,000 
men.  These  were  supported  by  two  corps  between 
Breslau  and  Glogau,  two  more  at  Posen,  a  large  force 
at  Oppeln,  and  other  troops  at  Oels,  Tarnowitz,  and 
places  which  I  need  not  name  here.  My  calculation 
was  that  about  1,000,000  men  were  ready  to  act  on 
the  line  JSTeustadt-Tchenstochow.  There  was  an- 
other 2,000,000  on  the  line  of  frontier  running  north- 
ward through  Thorn  and  East  Prussia  to  the  Baltic, 
and  probably  a  fourth  million  in  reserve  to  support 
any  portion  of  the  line  indicated;  and  what  was 
worth  at  least  another  2,000,000  men  to  Germany 
was  the  fact  that  she  could  move  any  portion  of  these 
troops  ten  times  more  quickly  than  Russia  could  move 
her  forces.  It  is  officially  stated  that  only  1,500,000 
Germans  were  in  line  in  August.  I  think  that  mj 
estimate  is  correct. 

Meanwhile,  conscious  that  I  had  not  permitted 
myself  to  be  over-cautious  in  acquiring  a  dangerous 
knowledge,  I  was  particularly  anxious  to  leave  Ger- 
many as  speedily  as  possible.  Chance  had  brought 
me  to  what  was  to  become  one  of  the  most  important 
points  of  the  operations  between  Prussia  and  Russia, 
and  chance  greatly  favoured  my  escape  from  what  I 
began  to  fear  was  an  awkward  trap.  Had  I  known 
what  a  nation  of  fiends  the  Germans  were  going  to 
prove  themselves,  my  anxiety  would  have  been  greatly 
increased.     Thank  God  there  is  no  race  on  earth  in 


10        AN  ENGLISHMAN  IN  THE  RUSSIAN  RANKS 

which  all  are  bad,  all  devoid  of  the  attributes  of 
humanity. 

Late  on  the  night  of  the  1st  August  (after  I  was 
in  bed,  indeed)  the  young  artillery  officer  I  have 
several  times  mentioned  came  to  my  friend's  house. 
I  do  not  think  it  would  be  wise  or  kind  on  my  part 
to  mention  his  name,  as  he  may  still  be  alive.  He 
was  accompanied  by  Swartz  and  a  servant,  with  two 
horses,  and  recommended  that  I  should  cross  the 
Russian  frontier  immediately,  as  all  Englishmen  in 
Germany  were  in  danger  of  being  interned.  War 
with  England  was  assumed  by  everybody  to  be  inevit- 
able, insomuch  that,  being  ignorant  of  the  true  state 
of  affairs,  I  assumed  that  an  ultimatum  had  been  sent 
to  Germany  by  the  British  Government.  I  was  told 
that  many  leading  German  papers  asserted  that  it 
had  been  so  sent. 

I  consented  to  leave  at  once,  with  the  object  of  try- 
ing to  reach  Kalisz,  and  from  there  taking  train  to 
Riga,  where,  it  was  thought,  I  should  find  no  diffi- 
culty in  getting  a  steamboat  passage  to  England.  It 
is  only  twelve  miles  by  railway  from  Ostrovo  to 
Kalisz,  but  the  line  was  already  occupied  by  troops, 
"  and,"  said  the  officers,  "  our  forces  will  occupy  the 
Russian  town  before  daybreak  to-morrow." 


CHAPTEK  II 

THE    SCENE    AT    KALISZ    ON    THE    2ND   AUGUST,      1914 

Had  I  not  been  nnder  military  escort  I  could  not 
possibly  have  got  along  any  of  the  roads  in  the  neigh- 
bourhood of  Ostrovo  —  all  were  crowded  by  Prus- 
sian infantry.  I  did  not  see  any  other  branches  of 
the  service,  but  I  understood  that  the  engineers  were 
mining  the  railway-line,  and  about  half  an  hour  after 
we  started  my  friends  declared  that  it  would  be 
hopeless  to  try  to  reach  Kalisz  from  the  German  side. 
They  said  they  must  leave  me,  as  it  was  imperative 
that  they  should  rejoin  their  regiments  before  the 
hour  of  parade.  A  road  was  pointed  out  to  me  as 
one  that  led  straight  to  the  frontier,  and  that  fron- 
tier I  was  recommended  to  endeavour  to  cross.  The 
horse  was  taken  away,  and,  after  shaking  hands  with 
the  officers  and  receiving  their  wishes  of  good-luck,  I 
proceeded  across  the  fields  on  foot. 

Pickets  of  cavalry  and  infantry  were  moving  about 
the  country,  but  I  avoided  them,  and  after  a  two- 
hours'  walk  reached  the  low  bank  which  I  knew 
marked  the  frontier-line.  It  was  then  after  three 
o'clock,  and  daylight  was  beginning  to  break.  As  far 
as  I  could  see,  nobody  was  about.     Some  cows  were 

in  the  field,  and  they  followed  me  a  short  distance  — 

11 


12        AN  ENGLISHMAN  IN  THE  RUSSIAN  RANKS 

a  worry  at  the  time,  as  I  feared  they  would  attract 
attention  to  my  movements. 

I  jumped  over  the  boundary,  and  walked  in  the 
direction  of  Kalisz,  the  dome  and  spire  and  taller 
buildings  of  which  were  now  visible  some  miles  to 
the  northward.  The  country  is  very  flat  here  — 
typical  Polish  ground,  without  trees  or  bushes  or 
hedges,  the  fields  being  generally  separated  by  ditches. 
It  is  a  wild  and  lonely  district,  and  very  thinly 
peopled.  And  I  do  not  think  there  were  any  Russian 
troops  in  the  town.  If  there  were,  it  must  have  been 
a  very  slender  detachment,  which  fell  back  at  once; 
for  if  any  firing  had  occurred,  I  must  have  seen  and 
heard  it.  'Not  a  sound  of  this  description  reached 
my  ears,  but  when  I  reached  Kalisz  at  5.30  a.m.  it 
was  full  of  German  soldiers,  infantry  and  Uhlans  — 
the  first  definite  information  I  had  that  war  was  ac- 
tually declared  between  the  two  countries,  and  the 
first  intimation  I  received  of  how  this  war  was  likely 
to  be  conducted,  for  many  of  the  Germans  were  mad 
drunk,  and  many  more  acting  like  wild  beasts. 

I  passed  through  crowds  of  soldiers  without  being 
interfered  with  —  a  wonderful  circumstance,  l^one 
of  the  shops  were  opened  at  that  early  hour,  but  the 
Germans  had  smashed  into  some  of  them,  and  were 
helping  themselves  to  eatables  and  other  things.  I 
saw  one  unter-officer  cramming  watches,  rings,  and 
other  jewellery  into  his  pockets.  He  was  quickly 
joined  by  other  wretches,  who  cleared  the  shop  in  a 
very  few  minutes. 

Hardly  knowing  what  to  do,  but  realizing  the  dan- 


THE  SCENE  AT  KALISZ  1» 

ger  of  lurking  about  without  an  apparent  object  in 
view,  I  continued  to  walk  through  the  streets  in 
search  of  the  railway-station,  or  a  place  where  I  could 
rest.  A  provost  and  a  party  of  military  policemen 
were  closing  the  public-houses  by  nailing  up  the 
doors,  and  I  saw  a  man  only  partly  dressed,  the  pro- 
prietor of  one  of  these  houses,  I  supposed,  murdered. 
He  made  an  excited  protest,  and  a  soldier  drove  his 
bayonet  into  the  poor  man's  chest.  He  uttered  a  ter- 
rible scream,  and  was  instantly  transfixed  by  a  dozen 
bayonets.  A  woman,  attracted  by  the  fearful  cry, 
came  rushing  out  of  the  house  screaming  and  crying. 
She  had  nothing  on  except  a  chemise,  and  the  soldiers 
treated  her  with  brutal  indecency.  I  was  impelled 
to  interfere  for  her  protection.  At  that  moment  an 
officer  came  up,  and  restored  some  order  amongst  the 
men,  striking  and  pricking  several  of  them  with  his 
sword.  He  said  something  to  me  which  I  did  not 
understand,  and,  receiving  no  reply,  struck  me  with 
his  fist,  and  then  arrogantly  waved  his  hand  for  me 
to  be  gone.  I  had  no  alternative.  I  suppressed  my 
wrath  and  moved  away,  but  the  horrible  sight  of  the 
bleeding  man  and  the  weeping  woman  haunted  me 
until  I  became  used  to  such  sights  —  and  worse. 

As  I  walked  through  the  streets  I  heard  the  screams 
of  women  and  children  on  all  sides,  mingled  with  the 
coarse  laughter  and  shouts  of  men,  which  told  plainly 
enough  what  was  taking  place,  though  I  could  not  un- 
derstand a  word  of  what  was  said.  I  was  struck  by 
drunken  or  excited  soldiers  more  than  once,  and 
kicked,  but  to  retaliate  or  use  the  weapon  with  which 


14        AN  ENGLISHMAN  IN  THE  RUSSIAN  RANKS 

I  was  armed  would,  I  could  perceive,  result  in  my 
instant  destruction ;  so  I  smothered  my  wrath  for  the 
time. 

Many  women  rushed  into  the  streets  dressed  in 
their  night-clothes  only,  some  of  them  stained  with 
blood,  as  evidence  of  the  ill-usage  they  had  suffered ; 
and  I  passed  the  dead  bodies  of  two  men  lying  in  the 
road,  one  of  which  was  that  of  a  youth.  These, 
there  can  be  no  doubt,  were  the  first  acts  of  war  on 
the  part  of  Germany  against  Russia  —  the  slaughter 
of  imarmed  and  defenceless  people. 

In  one  of  the  principal  streets  I  found  two  hotels 
or  large  public-houses  open.  They  were  both  full  of 
German  officers,  some  of  whom  were  drunk.  At  an 
upper  window  one  man  was  being  held  out  by  his 
legs,  while  a  comrade  playfully  spanked  him,  and  a 
wild  orgy  was  going  on  in  the  room  behind.  Bottles 
and  glasses  were  thrown  into  the  street,  and  a  party 
of  German  prostitutes  vied  in  bestiality  with  the 
men.  I  saw  the  hellish  scene.  Had  I  read  an  ac- 
count of  it,  I  should  at  once  have  stamped  the  writer 
in  my  heart  as  a  liar.  I  am  not  going  to  dwell  on 
the  filthy  horrors  of  that  day.  I  do  little  more  than 
hint  at  what  took  place,  and  only  remark  that  at  this 
hour  no  act  of  war,  no  fair  fight  or  military  opera- 
tion, had  taken  place  on  any  of  Germany's  borders. 
She  showed  the  bestiality  of  the  cowardly  hyena  be- 
fore a  fang  had  been  bared  against  her.  This  was 
the  information  I  afterwards  obtained  from  Rus- 
sian sources.  On  the  morning  Kalisz  was  sacked,  not 
a  shot  had  been  fired  by  the  Russian  soldiers. 


THE  SCENE  AT  KALISZ  15 

My  needs  compelled  me  to  take  risks.  All  the 
belongings  I  had  with  me  were  contained  in  a  small 
bag  which  I  carried  in  my  hand.  I  had  some  Ger- 
man money  in  my  pocket,  and  a  number  of  English 
sovereigns.  The  remainder  of  my  luggage  I  had 
been  compelled  to  leave  behind  at  Ostrovo.  Entering 
the  quietest  of  the  two  hotels,  I  found  the  proprietor 
and  several  of  his  servants  or  members  of  his  family 
trembling  in  the  basement.  I  was  stopped  at  the 
door  by  a  sentry,  but  he  was  a  quiet  sort  of  youth, 
accepted  a  few  marks,  and  while  he  was  putting  them 
in  his  pouch  permitted  me  to  slip  into  the  house. 

I  have  already  intimated  that  I  am  no  linguist.  I 
could  not  muster  a  dozen  words  of  German,  and  not 
one  of  Russian;  so,  holding  the  proprietor  to  insure 
his  attention  (the  poor  man  was  almost  in  a  state  of 
collapse),  I  made  motions  that  I  wished  to  eat  and 
drink.  No  doubt  they  took  me  for  a  German.  One 
of  the  maids  literally  rushed  to  the  cellar,  and  re- 
turned with  two  large  bottles  of  champagne  of  the 
size  which  our  great-grandfathers,  I  believe,  called 
"  magnums,"  containing  about  two  quarts  apiece. 

But  champagne  was  not  what  I  wanted,  so  I  looked 
round  till  I  found  a  huge  teapot.  The  face  of  the 
maid  was  expressionless,  but  she  was  not  lacking  in 
intelligence.  The  Russians  are  great  tea-drinkers, 
and  I  soon  had  a  good  breakfast  before  me,  with 
plenty  of  the  refreshing  beverage.  A  Russian  break- 
fast differs  much  from  an  English  early  morning 
meal,  but  on  this  occasion  I  contrived  to  obtain  bacon 
and  eggs,  which,  in  spite  of  all  doctors  and  economists 


16        AN  ENGLISHMAN  IN  THE  RUSSIAN  RANKS 

say  to  the  contrary,  is  one  of  the  best  foods  in  exist- 
ence for  travelling  or  fighting  on. 

Before  I  had  well  finished  this  meal  one  of  the 
riotous  officers  came  downstairs.  He  made  a  sudden 
stop  when  he  saw  me,  and  blinked  and  winked  like 
an  owl  in  sunlight,  for  he  had  had  plenty  of  liquor. 
He  asked  some  question,  and  as  I  could  not  very  well 
sit  like  a  speechless  booby,  I  replied  in  my  own  lan- 
guage. 

"  Good-morning,"  rather  dryly,  I  am  afraid. 
An  English  pig !  "  he  exclaimed. 
An  Englishman,"  I  corrected. 

[At  least  50  per  cent,  of  German  ofiicers  speak 
English  quite  fluently,  and  an  even  greater  number 
French,  learned  in  the  native  countries  of  these  lan- 
guages.] 

"  Bah-a-a-a !  "  he  exclaimed,  prolonging  the  inter- 
jection grotesquely.  "  Do  you  know  that  we  have 
wrecked  London,  blown  your  wonderful  Tower  and 
Tower  Bridge  and  your  St.  Paul's  to  dust,  killed  your 
King,  and  our  Zeppelins  are  now  wrecking  Man- 
chester and  Liverpool  and  your  other  fine  manufac- 
turing towns  ?  " 

"  Nonsense !  "  I  said. 

"  It  is  true,  I  assure  you,"  he  replied. 

The  news  sent  a  terrible  thrill  through  my  nerves, 
for  I  did  not  yet  know  what  liars  Germans  could  be, 
and  I  did  not  think  a  Prussian  ofiicer  could  stoop  to 
be  so  mendacious  a  scoundrel  as  this  fellow  proved 
to  be. 

Then  there  is  war  between  England  and  Ger- 


iC 


THE  SCENE  AT  KALISZ  17 

many  ?  "  I  asked,  wondering  at  its  sudden  outbreak. 
■''  When  was  it  declared  ?  " 

"  It  is  not  declared.  "We  have  taken  time  by  the 
forelock,  as  you  British  say  —  as  we  mean  to  take  it 
with  all  who  dare  to  oppose  us.  You  are  a  stinking 
Englishman,  and  I'll  have  you  shot !  "  he  concluded 
furiously. 

Going  to  the  foot  of  the  stairs,  he  began  to  call  to 
his  companions,  reviling  the  English,  and  declaring 
that  there  was  a  spy  below.  As  his  drunken  com- 
rades did  not  hear  him  or  immediately  respond,  he 
ascended  the  stairs,  and  I  took  the  opportunity  to 
put  down  some  money  for  my  breakfast,  catch  up  my 
bag,  and  escape  from  the  house. 

At  the  top  of  the  street  the  road  broadened  out  into 
a  kind  of  square  or  open  space,  and  as  I  reached  this 
spot  a  large  number  of  soldiers  brought  eight  pris- 
oners into  the  centre  of  it.  Three  of  them  were 
dressed  in  what  I  took  to  be  the  uniforms  of  Russian 
officers,  three  others  were  gendarmes  or  policemen. 
The  other  two  wore  the  dress  of  civilians.  All  were 
very  pale  and  serious-looking,  but  all  were  firm  ex- 
cept one  of  the  civilians,  who  I  could  see  was  trem- 
bling, while  his  knees  were  shaking  so  that  he  could 
scarcely  stand.  A  German  officer  of  rank  —  I  be- 
lieve a  Major-General  —  stood  in  front  of  them  and 
interrogated  one  of  the  Russian  officers,  who  looked 
at  him  sternly  and  did  not  reply.  The  German  also 
read  something  from  a  paper  he  held  in  his  hand, 
while  six  men  were  ranged  before  each  one  of  the 
prisoners.     I  saw  what  was  about  to  take  place,  but 


18        AN  ENGLISHMAN  IN  THE  RUSSIAN  RANKS 

before  I  was  prepared  for  it  the  German  stood  aside 
and  waved  his  hand.  Instantly  the  firing-parties 
raised  their  rifles  and  shot  down  the  eight  prisoners. 
They  were  not  all  killed  outright.  One  man  rolled 
',  about  in  dreadful  agony,  two  others  tried  to  rise  after 
'  falling,  and  a  fourth  attempted  to  run  away.  A  sick- 
ening fusillade  ensued ;  at  least  a  hundred  shots  were 
fired  before  all  the  victims  lay  stark  and  quiet.  !N"or 
were  they  the  only  victims.  The  officer  in  charge  of 
the  firing-party  took  no  precautions,  uttered  no  warn- 
ings, and  several  of  the  spectators  were  struck  by  the 
bullets,  while  there  was  a  wild  stampede  of  civilians 
from  the  square. 

Let  it  be  noted  that  these  ferocious  murders  took 
place  before  a  shot  had  been  fired,  so  far  as  I  know, 
between  the  armed  forces  of  the  two  nations. 

I  never  heard  who  the  slain  men  were,  or  why  they 
were  put  to  death ;  but  from  what  I  afterwards  read 
in  English  newspapers  I  suppose  that  the  Mayor  of 
Xalisz  was  one  of  them. 


CHAPTER  ni 

THE    EVENTS    PRECEDING   ACTUAIi"    HOSTILITIES 

[Why  were  there  no  Russian  soldiers  in  the  neighbour- 
hood of  Kalisz  in  the  beginning  of  August,  1914  ? 
The  answer  is  simple. 

Kalisz  is  an  open  town,  with  a  single  line  running 
to  Warsaw,  140  miles,  via  Lodz  and  Lowicz.  The 
nearest  branch  lines  are  the  Warsaw-Tchenstoclrow 
on  the  south,  with  nearest  point  to  Kalisz  about  ninety 
English  miles  away;  and  the  Warsaw-Plock  line  to 
Thorn,  with  nearest  point  to  Kalisz,  also  about  ninety 
miles.  So  far  as  transport  was  concerned,  the  Rus- 
sians were  not  in  it  at  all. 

Eor  on  the  German  side  of  the  frontier  there  is  a 
complete  and  very  elaborate  network  of  railways,  so 
that  the  Teuton  could  mass  1,000,000  men  on  Kalisz 
long  before  the  Muscovite  could  transport  100,000 
there.  This  is  what  harassed  the  last-named  Power 
■ — want  of  railways.  Wherever  they  tried  to  con- 
centrate, the  Germans  were  before  them,  and  in  over- 
whelming numbers.  It  is  her  elaborate  railway  sys- 
tem that  has  enabled  Germany  to  get  the  utmost  from 
her  armies  —  to  get  the  work  of  two  or  three  corps, 
and  in  some  cases  even  more,  out  of  one.  Her  rail- 
ways have  practically  doubled  her  armed  force  — 
this  at  least. 

19 


20        AN  ENGLISHMAN  IN  THE  RUSSIAN  RANKS 

The  Germans  are  masters  of  the  art  of  war,  and 
liave  been  so  for  fifty  years;  the  Russians  are  hard 
fighters,  but  they  are  not  scientific  soldiers.  The 
Germans  have  consolidated  and  perfected  everything 
that  relates  to  armed  science;  the  Russians  have 
trusted  too  much  to  their  weight  of  numbers.  Yet 
the  Bear,  though  a  slow  and  dull  animal,  has  devilish 
long  and  strong  claws;  and,  like  another  animal  en- 
gaged in  this  contest  for  the  existence  of  the  world, 
has  the  habit  so  provoking  to  his  enemies,  of  never 
knowing  when  he  is  beaten. 

The  reason,  then,  that  there  was  no  sufficient  force, 
if  any  force  at  all,  near  Kalisz  when  the  treacherous 
Teuton  suddenly  sprung  hostilities  upon  her  on  the 
1st  August,  1914,  was  that  the  Muscovite,  through 
apathy  inherited  from  his  Asiatic  ancestors,  com- 
bined with  a  paucity  of  money,  had  no  railways, 
while  his  opponent  had  one  of  the  most  complete  sys- 
tems of  locomotive  transport  for  men  and  material 
that  is  to  be  found  in  the  whole  world. 

It  was  its  isolated  situation  and  great  distance 
from  a  base  that  made  Kalisz  the  weak  point  on  the 
Russian  frontier,  and  the  German  Eagle  saw  this 
and  swooped  on  it  as  a  bird  of  prey  on  a  damjess 
lamb. 

But  the  Russian  base,  if  distant,  was  strong,  and 
the  force  and  material  at  Warsaw  was  powerful  and 
great,  and  was  in  ponderous  motion  long  before  the 
Vulture  had  picked  clean  the  bones  of  her  first  vic- 
tim. Russia  has  no  great  fortress  on  the  German 
frontier.     This  is  another  serious  fault  of  defence. 


THE  EVENTS  PRECEDING  ACTUAL  HOSTILITIES       21 

Railways  and  fortresses  are  the  need  of  the  ISTorthem 
Power  to  enable  her  to  control  effectually  the  bird 
of  ill  omen  which  has  so  long  hovered  over  Central 
Europe,  unless  that  bird  is  to  die  for  all  time,  which 
is  what  should  be,  and  which  is  what  will  be,  unless 
the  folly  of  the  nations  is  incurable. 

After  witnessing  the  terrible  scene  described  in 
the  last  chapter  my  feelings  of  insecurity  and  un- 
certainty were  greatly  increased.  By  means  of  a 
plan  in  my  possession  I  found  my  way  to  the  railway- 
station.  It  was  in  the  hands  of  the  German  troops, 
thousands  of  whom  crowded  the  building  and  its  vi- 
cinity,  and  a  glance  was  sufficient  to  show  that  I  could 
not  leave  Kalisz  by  means  of  the  railway.  Accord- 
ing to  my  plan,  there  were  stations  further  up  the 
line  in  an  easterly  direction,  some  of  them  at  no 
great  distance  from  Kalisz;  but  I  felt  sure  these 
would  be  occupied  by  the  Germans  before  I  could 
reach  them. 

Personal  safety  required  that  I  should  make  an  im- 
mediate effort  to  escape.  More  than  once  I  had  no- 
jticed  Teutonic  eyes  regarding  me  with  suspicious 
'  glances  —  at  least,  so  I  thought  —  and  I  quite  real- 
ized that  delay  would  be  dangerous. 

Ee-entering  the  town,  which  is  a  place  of  about 
25,000  inhabitants,  I  reached  the  open  country  tq 
the  north  through  back  streets,  resolved  to  en- 
deavour to  reach  Lodz  by  making  a  wide  detour  from 
the  line,  which  was  sure  to  be  occupied  by  the  hostile 
troops.  What  reception  I  should  meet  with  from 
the  hands  of  the  Russian  soldiers  I  could  not  tell, 


22        AN  ENGLISHMAN  IN  THE  RUSSIAN  RANKS 

but  I  felt  sure  that  it  would  not  be  worse  than  that  I 
might  expect  from  their  foes. 

By  this  time  it  was  past  midday,  and  the  streets 
of  Kalisz  were  nearly  deserted.  I  saw  only  one  or 
two  male  fugitives  hurrying  along,  apparently  bent, 
like  myself,  on  escape.  As  soon  as  I  reached  a  re- 
tired spot  I  tore  my  maps  and  plans  to  shreds  and 
threw  them  away.  I  had  no  doubt  what  it  would 
mean  to  be  caught  with  such  things  on  me. 

Patrols  of  cavalry.  Uhlans  and  hussars,  were  scour- 
ing the  country  in  all  directions.  Peasants  in  the 
fields  were  running  together,  and  the  hussars  beat 
many  of  them  with  their  sabres,  but  I  do  not  think 
they  killed  any  at  this  time.  The  Uhlans  wounded 
some  by  tearing  them  down  with  the  hooks  with  which 
the  staves  of  their  lances  are  furnished,  and  I  saw  a 
party  of  them  amusing  themselves  by  rending  the 
clothes  off  a  poor  old  woman  who  was  working  in 
one  of  the  fields. 

Perceiving  that  it  would  be  impossible  to  avoid 
these  cavalrymen,  I  looked  about  for  a  hiding-place. 
There  was  a  range  of  low  buildings  about  a  quarter 
of  a  mile  from  the  ditch  in  which  I  was  crouching. 
The  place  seemed  to  be  a  farm,  with  a  number  of 
barns  or  sheds  on  one  side  of  it,  some  of  which  were 
scattered  about  irregularly.  I  reached  the  nearest 
of  these  without  attracting  notice,  and  found  there  a 
weeping  woman  and  two  men,  one  of  whom  was 
bleeding  badly  from  wounds  on  the  head  and  face. 
They  looked  at  me,  and  the  unhurt  man  said  some- 


THE  EVENTS  PRECEDING  ACTUAL  HOSTILITIES      23 

tiling  which  I  did  not  understand.  A  party  of  hus- 
sars was  riding  towards  the  shed.  As  a  forlorn 
chance  of  escape,  I  lay  down  on  the  floor  and  pulled 
some  straw  over  me  as  well  as  I  could.  Apparently 
the  men  and  woman  ran  away,  and  by  so  doing  di- 
verted the  attention  of  the  hussars  from  the  shed.  I 
lay  there  till  dusk,  when  the  unhurt  man  and  the 
woman  came  back  carrying  a  bowl  of  milk  and  some 
coarse  bread,  which  they  gave  to  me.  I  was  very 
glad  of  it,  having  tasted  nothing  since  the  morning. 
They  spoke,  but  chiefly  together,  as  they  perceived 
that  I  could  not  understand  them. 

Soon  afterwards,  expressing  my  thanks  as  well  as  I 
could,  I  left  the  shed  and  proceeded  on  my  w^y  to- 
wards Lodz.  There  was  sufficient  light  to  enable 
me  to  preserve  a  general  direction  and  to  avoid  the 
numerous  parties  of  German  cavalry  which  were 
patrolling  the  country,  but  long  before  the  night  was 
over  I  had  got  beyond  these.  I  do  not  think  they 
extended  more  than  ten  or  twelve  miles  beyond  the 
points  at  which  they  had  invaded  Poland. 

During  the  night  I  met  with  no  adventures  more 
serious  than  floundering  into  several  water-courses 
and  falling  into  a  couple  of  ditches  in  endeavouring 
to  jump  them,  for  the  ditches  are  very  wide  and 
deep  in  this  country.  To  avoid  such  accidents,  I 
afterwards  kept  to  the  roads.  These  are  not  bounded 
by  hedges  or  fences  of  any  kind,  and  there  was  nearly 
an  entire  absence  of  bridges.  Arriving  at  a  brook, 
the  traveller  might  or  might  not  find  stepping-stones. 


24        AN  ENGLISHMAN  IN  THE  RUSSIAN  RANKS 

In  the  absence  of  these,  one  had  to  wade  through  the 
water,  which  in  one  case  I  experienced  at  this  time 
came  nearly  up  to  the  knees. 

I  could  not  know,  of  course,  if  the  people  knew 
that  a  state  of  war  existed,  but  I  saw  no  watchmen 
or  police  about  the  few  hamlets  and  the  villages  I 
passed  through.  Once  I  was  attacked  by  a  couple  of 
very  fierce  dogs,  and  was  compelled  to  kill  one  of 
them  to  get  free ;  but  until  after  four  o'clock  the  next 
morning  no  men  appeared.  A  few  of  those  who 
saluted  me  seemed  surprised  that  I  did  not  make  a 
reply,  but  I  could  only  raise  my  hat,  and  by  doing  so 
I  perhaps  occasioned  gi-eater  astonishment  than  I 
would  have  done  by  entirely  ignoring  them. 

There  were  hardly  any  trees  in  this  country.  The 
farms  and  isolated  houses  were  usually  marked  by  a 
poplar  or  two  and  a  clump  of  willows,  and  there  were 
some  willows  along  the  courses  of  the  streams.  The 
buildings,  except  the  churches,  were  generally  very 
low-pitched,  and  there  was  a  singular  paucity  of 
chimneys,  since  stoves  were  the  nearly  universal 
means  of  warming  the  rooms;  indeed,  I  saw  stoves 
in  this  country  which  were  almost  rooms  in  them- 
selves, with  sleeping-places  above  the  flues.  Turf 
was  the  chief  fuel  used,  and  the  dried  droppings  of 
horses  and  cattle. 

There  was  a  shower  of  rain  during  the  night,  but 
the  morning  broke  clear  and  bright,  and  it  was  day- 
light long  before  I  was  as  far  beyond  the  reach  of 
the  Huns  as  I  could  have  wished  to  be.  The  country 
seemed  to  be  very  sparsely  peopled.     The  peasantry 


THE  EVENTS  PRECEDING  ACTUAL  HOSTILITIES       25 

were  early  risers,  and  most  of  them  seemed  to  be  in 
the  fields  before  five  o'clock.  The  crops  were  to  a 
great  extent  cut,  and  some  were  in  process  of  cartage 
in  heavy  waggons.     It  was  a  very  hot  day. 

About  ten  o'clock  I  stopped  at  the  door  of  a  farm 
and  made  signs  that  I  wanted  food  and  drink.  I  was 
afraid  to  oifer  German  money,  though  this  would 
probably  have  been  better  understood  than  the  tender 
of  an  English  sovereign.  The  man  took  the  coin, 
looked  at  it,  bit  it,  and  rubbed  it,  and  handed  it  to  a 
group  of  women  and  girls  —  his  mother,  wife  and 
daughters,  I  thought.  The  image  of  His  Majesty 
King  George  was  evidently  taken  to  be  that  of  the 
Czar;  but  the  denomination  of  the  coin  puzzled  the 
farmer  and  excited  great  curiosity  amongst  the 
women.  However,  my  wants  were  understood,  and 
I  obtained  butter,  bread,  tea  and  cheese  of  a  kind  I 
had  never  previously  eaten,  and  also  some  excellent 
toneycomb,  but  no  kind  of  meat.  The  farmer 
wanted  me  to  take  back  the  sovereign,  but  it  was  so 
evidently  coveted  by  his  wife  that  I  pressed  it  upon 
her  until  she  pocketed  it.  In  return  I  brought  away 
as  much  provision  as  I  could  carry. 

Before  midday  I  thought  I  had  walked  about 
thirty  miles,  though  not  in  a  direct  line.  By  this 
time  I  had  arrived  at  a  river  which  I  knew  must  be 
the  Warta.  It  was  not  very  wide,  but  the  banks 
where  I  struck  it  were  deep,  and  crumbling  away; 
and  the  stream  was  unfordable.  'Not  knowing  what 
else  to  do  I  turned  southwards  along  its  banks  to- 
wards Sieradz,  hoping  to  reach  a  village  where  I 


26        AN  ENGLISHMAN  IN  THE  RUSSIAN  RANKS 

might  be  ferried  across;  but  just  as  I  was  about  to 
enter  a  small  hamlet,  I  was  confronted  by  two  po- 
licemen. They  jabbered  at  me  and  I  jabbered  at 
them ;  but  if  ever  "  ^o  nonsense  "  were  seen  in  a 
human  countenance  I  saw  it  in  that  of  policeman 
JSTo.  1.  I  produced  my  passports.  One  of  these 
gave  me  permission  to  cross  the  Russian  frontier ;  but 
as  it  was  obtained  in  Germany  I  would,  under  the 
circumstances,  have  gladly  suppressed  it.  Unfor- 
tunately it  was  folded  up  with  the  English-German 
document,  and  I  was  not  sharp  enough  to  separate 
them  before  No.  1  sighted  the  document,  and  de- 
manded it  vdth  an  impatient  gesture.  This  he  could 
read,  but  the  other  puzzled  him ;  not  that  this  circum- 
stance interfered  with  the  promptitude  of  his  action. 
I  saw  with  half  an  eye  that  I  had  to  go  somewhere 
with  this  Russian  policeman :  and  the  "  somewhere  " 
proved  to  be  the  lock-up  in  a  tiny  hamlet  the  name  of 
which  I  never  learned. 

This  wretched  hole  was  three-parts  under  ground, 
about  seven  feet  long,  and  scarcely  four  wide  —  a 
den  evidently  designed  for  torture :  for  one  could  not 
turn  round  in  it  without  difficulty ;  and  how  to  sleep 
in  such  a  place  puzzled  me,  though  I  was  spared  the 
ordeal  of  having  to  do  so.  For  a  few  hours  after  I 
was  incarcerated  I  was  fetched  out  and  handed  over 
to  the  charge  of  five  mounted  cossacks,  the  leader 
seeming  to  be  a  corporal.  I  was  handcuffed  to  the 
stirrups  of  this  gentleman  and  one  of  his  comrades, 
an  arrangement  which  gave  me  the  option  of  walking 
or  being  dragged  along.     All  the  party  carried  vil- 


THE  EVENTS  PRECEDING  ACTUAL  HOSTILITIES      27 

lainous-looking  whips  in  addition  to  rifles,  sabres 
and  lances.  But  they  did  not  force  the  pace,  and 
when  we  had  gone  about  five  miles  we  overtook  a 
light  cart,  which  the  corporal  stopped,  and  placed  me 
therein.  We  then  travelled  at  the  rate  of  eight  or 
nine  miles  an  hour,  halting  at  a  roadside  inn  for 
drink,  which  I  paid  for  with  another  English  sover- 
eign. Again  the  coin  excited  much  curiosity,  but  the 
corporal  saw  that  I  obtained  a  fair  amount  of  change 
in  Russian  money  and  I  was  civilly  treated  on  the 
;whole. 

In  less  than  two  hours  we  arrived  at  the  small  town. 
of  Szadek,  though  I  did  not  .know  the  name  of  the 
place  at  the  time.  It  is  only  twenty  English  miles 
(twenty-seven  versts)  from  Lodz,  and  here  for  the 
first  time  since  crossing  the  German  frontier  I  saw 
Russian  troops  in  force.  I  did  not  have  the  oppoi«- 
tunity  of  seeing  the  strength  of  these  troops;  but 
Szadek  was  full  of  infantry,  and  we  passed  a  great 
many  tents  before  entering  the  town.  It  was  night- 
fall when  we  arrived;  but  I  was  immediately  taken 
to  an  hotel  and  questioned  by  an  ofiicer  of  General 
rank.  Finding  that  I  could  not  speak  Russian,  he 
tried  German,  and  I  said,  in  the  best  Erench  I  could 
muster,  that  I  was  an  Englishman.  I  am  not  suf- 
ficient master  of  the  polite  language  of  Europe  to 
carry  on  a  conversation  in  it,  so  the  ofiicer  sent  for  a 
Russian  Major,  Polchow,  who  spoke  English  fluently, 
and  he  acted  as  interpreter. 

My  story  was  listened  to  with  great  interest,  es- 
pecially those  parts  of  it  which  related  to  the  move- 


28        AN  ENGLISHMAN  IN  THE  RUSSIAN  RANKS 

ments  and  conduct  of  the  German  troops  and  the 
murder  of  citizens  at  Kalisz.  I  underwent  a  length- 
ened cross-examination,  and,  I  suppose,  the  nature 
of  my  communications  becoming  known,  the  room 
was  speedily  crowded  by  officers,  most  of  them  evi- 
dently of  high  rank.  It  was  after  midnight  before 
I  was  dismissed,  having,  I  could  see,  made  a  favour- 
able impression  on  all  those  w^ho  were  present.  It 
was  then  I  learned,  to  my  great  relief,  that  the  Ger- 
man accounts  of  the  destruction  of  London,  etc.,  were 
falsehoods.  "  As  yet  there  is  no  war  between  Ger- 
many and  England ;  but  there  will  be  in  a  few  days," 
said  the  General. 

Speaking  through  Major  Polchow,  the  General 
further  said,  "  You  have  come  to  Eussia  for  help  and 
protection:  you  shall  have  them.  What  do  you 
wish  ?  "  In  reply  I  said  that  I  desired  to  return  to 
my  own  country  as  speedily  as  possible,  but  that  if 
the  Germans,  being  near  at  hand,  came  up  before  ar- 
rangements could  be  made  for  my  departure,  I  should 
be  glad  to  use  a  rifle  against  them. 

It  was  then  explained  to  me  that  all  the  inn  ac- 
commodation in  Szadek  being  taken  up  I  could  be 
ofl'ered  only  a  tent  lodging,  but  that  every  endeavour 
would  be  made  to  render  me  comfortable.  Then 
Major  Polchow  offered  to  look  after  me,  and  I  ac- 
companied him  to  a  private  house  where  he  was 
billeted. 

I  much  regret  that  I  have  forgotten  the  name  of 
this  obliging  officer  before  whom  I  was  examined, 
"which  name,  a  very  unpronounceable  one,  was  only 


THE  EVENTS  PRECEDING  ACTUAL  HOSTILITIES      29 

casually  mentioned,  and  was  forgotten  in  the  excite- 
ment of  the  events  which  immediately  followed. 

Polchow  was  an  artillery  officer,  attached  to  a 
South  Russian  regiment,  but  afterwards  to  an  East 
Russian  regiment,  which  lost  all  its  officers  —  with 
one  or  two  exceptions  at  any  rate.  I  was  entertained 
by  him  most  royally. 

On  the  following  day  I  underwent  another  long 
examination  before  an  Adjutant  of  the  Grand  Duke 
ISTicholas  and  a  large  number  of  Staff  officers,  and  was 
much  complimented  on  my  adventures  and  the  value 
of  the  information  I  was  able  to  give.  These  matters 
I  must  ask  to  be  excused  for  passing  over  with  bare 
mention.  I  expected  to  have  had  an  interview  with 
the  Grand  Duke  himself;  but  he  departed  that  eve- 
ning without  my  having  seen  him. 

The  offer  was  made  to  send  me  on  to  Riga  or 
Libau,  or  any  port  I  might  choose ;  and  to  facilitate 
my  departure  to  my  own  country;  but  I  am  an 
Englishman,  thank  God,  and  I  was  not  inclined  to 
turn  my  back  on  my  country's  foes  until  I  had  seen 
the  whites  of  their  eyes  and  let  them  see  mine.  For 
by  this  time  we  were  beginning  to  learn  something 
of  German  dirt,  and  German  cruelty. 


CHAPTER  IV 

THE   FIRST   FIGHT 

It  became  necessary  to  know  what  the  Germans  were 
doing,  or  appeared  to  be  going  to  do.  Fugitives  from 
Kalisz  and  the  country  eastward  of  it  reported  that 
thousands  of  Germans  were  pouring  over  the  border, 
and  it  was  known  to  Headquarters  that  they  were 
gradually  pressing  onwards  to  Lodz. 

On  the  6th,  7th,  and  8th  August,  the  4th  Cossacks 
of  the  Don,  and  five  other  cavalry  regiments,  with 
some  light  guns,  were  engaged  in  reconnaissance,  and 
the  result  was  to  ascertain  that  the  Germans  were 
entrenching  themselves  on  a  line  from  Kalisz  to 
Sieradz,  covering  the  railway;  and  also  extending 
their  earthworks  right  and  left  along  the  banks  of 
the  Warta,  thus  forming  a  strong  point,  on  Russian 
soil,  for  an  advance  on  Warsaw.  I  was  riding  in  the 
ranks  of  the  4th,  and  can  say,  from  personal  obser- 
vation, that  the  works  mentioned  were  of  a  formid- 
able description,  and  armed  with  heavy  guns. 

On  the  8th  the  Zeithen  Hussars  charged  the  4th, 
which  fell  back ;  and  the  hussars  were  taken  in  hand 
by  the  12th  Russian  Dragoons  and  very  roughly 
handled.  I  counted  forty  dead  bodies ;  but  the  Ger- 
mans advanced  some  infantry  and  guns,  and  saved 

their  wounded.     Their  total  loss  could  not  have  been 

30 


THE  FIRST  FIGHT  31 

less  than  140  men.  The  dragoons  had  two  men 
killed  and  about  a  dozen  wounded,  mostly  by  the  fire 
of  infantry.  The  general  idea  that  the  Germans 
are  good  swordsmen  is  erroneous.  They  are  very 
poor  broadswordsmen ;  and  the  Russians  are  inferior 
to  the  French  in  the  use  of  this  weapon. 

I  expected  that  the  affair  would  develop  into  a 
general  action,  but  it  did  not.  The  force  of  German 
cavalry  was  much  inferior  to  that  of  the  Russian,  and 
they  soon  fell  back,  trying  to  lure  our  men  under 
infantry  and  artillery  fire.  In  this  they  did  not  suc- 
ceed; but  I  believe  that  on  our  extreme  right  they 
did  some  execution  with  long-range  shell  fire.  Why 
the  Russians  did  not  bring  up  infantry  and  artillery 
I  am  unable  to  conjecture.  It  is  my  opinion  that 
there  was  something  behind  which  did  not  appear  to 
a  spectator  in  my  position.  The  Germans  had  cer- 
tainly prepared  something  resembling  a  trap;  and 
possibly  the  Russian  commander  saw,  or  suspected, 
more  than  was  perceptible  to  the  ordinary  eye.  At 
any  rate  he  held  his  men  back  at  a  moment  when  I 
expected  to  see  them  advance  and  outflank  the  enemy. 
The  fighting  which  followed  was  decidedly  desultory 
and  without  important  results.  There  was  much  ar- 
tillery firing  from  guns  which  were,  I  think,  four  or 
five  English  miles  from  that  part  of  the  Russian  po- 
sition where  I  was.  It  did  so  very  little  execution 
that  I  considered  it  was  a  mere  waste  of  ammunition. 

In  this  combat  the  Russians  seemed  to  be  superior 
in  strength  of  all  three  arms,  which  was  the  reason, 
I  suppose,  that  the  enemy  did  not  make  a  decided 


32        AN  ENGLISHMAN  IN  THE  RUSSIAN  RANKS 

advance.     He  was  probably  waiting  for  reinforce- 
ments, which  did  not  arrive  until  late  in  the  day,  if 
they  came  up  at  all.     On  the  other  hand,  there  was 
a  force  of  German  infantry  lying  in  wait,  and  this 
body  of  troops  may  have  been  stronger  than  appeared. 
I  can  only  be  responsible  for  what  I  saw,  though 
I  feel  at  liberty  to  repeat  what  I  heard  where  prob- 
ability of  its  truth  may  be  inferred.     I  have  also 
looked  through  files  of  English  newspapers;  and  I 
cannot  attempt  to  veil  the  fact  that  I  must  often  be, 
or  appear  to  be,  in  contradiction  to  accounts  that  were 
published  about  the  time  the  narrated  incidents  were 
recorded  to  have  taken  place.     Naturally,  first  rec- 
ords were  imperfect,  or  needed  explanations ;  but  some 
things  appeared  in  English  papers  which  it  is  diffi- 
cult to  understand.     Eor  instance,  it  is  said  to  bo 
"  officially  reported  from  Petrograd  "  that  the  fron- 
tier was  not  crossed  by  the  Germans  in  the  neighbour- 
hood of  Kalisz,  and  that  no  fighting  took  place  until 
the  14th  or  15th  August.      (I  am  not  sure  which  date 
is  meant;  or  whether  the  old  or  new  system  is  in- 
tended.)    Both  these  assertions  are  incorrect,  and 
could  not  have  emanated  from  an  "  official "  source. 
The  Russians  are  our  allies,  and  personally  I  received 
great  kindness  from  the  hands  of  many  of  them ;  but 
the  only  value  of  a  narrative  of  the  kind  I  am  writing 
is  its  correctness,  and  I  intend  to  record  the  truth 
without  fear  and  without  favour.     I  cannot  perceive 
that  it  would  be  any  advantage  to  them  to  make  a 
misstatement.     The  assertion  is  probably  an  error. 
At  any  rate  I  can  state,  and  do  positively  state,  that 


THE  FIRST  FIGHT  33 

the  frontier  was  crossed  by  the  Germans  at  Kalisz; 
and  that  fighting  took  place  at  several  points  before 
the  14th  August.  Possibly  the  accounts  were  pub- 
lished before  correction. 

At  this  time  I  learned  that  there  was  a  line  of 
strong  posts  from  Dabie  to  Petrikau,  a  distance  of« 
roughly,  eighty  versts.  These,  probably,  outflanked 
the  Germans ;  and  reinforcements  were  daily  arriving 
in  vast  numbers,  prolonging  the  line  in  the  direction 
of  the  Vistula  some  seventy  versts  north  of  Dabie. 
The  country  between  Dabie  and  the  named  river  was 
patrolled  by  an  enormous  horde  of  cavalry  —  at  least 
20,000  —  and  infantry  and  artillery  were  coming  up 
by  march  route,  there  being  no  railway  except  the 
Kutno-Warsaw  narrow-gauge  line,  which  was  used 
chiefly  for  the  transport  of  ammunition  and  stores. 
This  line  runs  direct  to  Thorn,  one  of  Germany's 
strong  frontier  fortresses ;  and  the  Russians  tried  to 
push  along  it  as  far  as  possible ;  but  the  Germans  sent 
flying  parties  into  Russia  as  far  as  Wroclawick,  fiity 
versts  from  Thorn,  and  completely  destroyed  the  line. 
In  doing  this  they  suffered  some  losses,  for  a  Russian 
force  crossed  the  Vistula  near  ISTieszawa  and  attacked 
one  of  the  working-parties.  They  claimed  to  have 
killed  and  wounded  300  of  the  enemy,  and  they 
brought  in  ninety  prisoners,  four  of  whom  were 
ofiicers. 

The  only  fighting  I  saw  during  these  operations 
was  between  two  cavalry  pickets.  There  were  thirty 
Cossacks  on  our  side.  I  do  not  know  how  many 
Germans  there  were,  but  they  were  reinforced  con- 


34        AN  ENGLISHMAN  IN  THE  RUSSIAN  RANKS 

tinuallj  during  the  fight  tmtil  they  compelled  us  to 
fall  back.  Thej  held  the  verge  of  a  pine-wood,  while 
the  Cossacks  sheltered  themselves  behind  some  scat- 
tered trees,  fighting,  of  course,  dismounted  with  their 
horses  picketed  a  mile  behind  them  and  left  in  charge 
of  a  trumpeter. 

So  far  as  I  could  see,  the  fight  was  a  completely 
useless  one.  It  resulted  in  the  death  of  two  men  on 
our  side,  and  six  wounded.  The  firing  lasted  nearly 
three  hours  and  would  probably  have  gone  on  much 
longer  had  not  our  men  run  out  of  cartridges.  In 
this  little  skirmish  I  shot  off  a  hundred  rounds  my- 
seK,  with  what  result  must  be  left  to  the  imagina- 
tion; for,  as  the  distance  was  900  yards,  I  had  not 
even  the  satisfaction  of  seeing  the  branches  of  the 
trees  fiying  about.  The  German  bullets  cut  off  many 
twigs  from  our  trees,  and  the  trumpeter  afterwards 
reported  that  several  of  their  shots  fell  amongst  the 
horses  without  doing  any  damage.  It  showed  the 
great  range  of  the  German  weapons,  and  also  the 
very  bad  shooting  of  the  men. 

We  drew  off,  and  some  of  the  hussars  came  out  of 
the  wood,  mounted  their  horses,  and  looked  after  us ; 
but  they  did  not  attempt  to  follow  us.  Enterprise 
was  not  a  prominent  attribute  of  the  German  cavalry, 
nor,  indeed,  of  the  mounted  force  of  our  own  side, 
though  the  Cossacks  sometimes  showed  considerable 
boldness.  Often  I  longed  for  the  presence  of  a  few 
regiments  of  British  or  French  cavalry,  for  some 
splendid  opportunities  were  let  slip  by  the  Russian 
troopers ;  not  from  want  of  bravery,  but  simply  from 


THE  FIRST  FIGHT  35 

the  lack  of  that  daring  dash  which  is  a  distinguishing 
feature  of  all  good  horsemanship. 

Yet,  notwithstanding  the  want  of  energy  on  the 
part  of  the  Russian  mounted  men,  they  were  con- 
.  tinually  on  the  move,  and,  as  I  soon  discovered  for 
;  myself,  were  gradually  moving  to  the  north,  appar- 
ently covering  the  advance  of  an  ever-increasing  mass 
of  infantry  and  artillery.  Polchow's  battery  was 
attached  to  the  brigade  of  Cossacks  of  which  the  4th 
was  one  of  the  units.  The  reason  that  I  connected 
myself  with  this  particular  corps  was  because  one  of 
its  officers  spoke  a  little  English ;  but  it  was  so  little 
that  we  frequently  had  much  difficulty  in  under- 
standing each  other.  I  soon  learned  the  Russian 
words  of  command  and  the  names  of  common  things 
and  objects,  and  I  often  acted  as  officer  of  a  squadron 
(or  "  sotnia,"  as  the  men  call  it)  ;  but  I  felt  that  I 
would  rather  be  with  Polchow,  and  I  soon  became 
attached  to  his  battery  as  a  "  cadet,"  though  I  was 
the  oldest  man  in  the  unit. 

It  was  a  "  horse  "  battery ;  but  the  horse  artillery 
in  the  Russian  service  is  not  a  separately  organized 
body  as  it  is  in  the  British  Army.  The  guns  are 
simply  well-horsed,  and  the  limbers,  waggons,  etc., 
rendered  as  light  and  mobile  as  possible.  The  bat- 
teries have  not  the  dash  and  go  of  English  horse-ar- 
tillery; and  I  should  be  very  sorry  to  see  a  Russian 
battery  attempt  to  gallop  over  a  ditch  or  other  trouble- 
some obstacle,  as  I  can  foresee  what  the  result  would 
be.  The  Russian  horse-artillery  is  a  sort  of  advanced- 
guard  of  the  gunnery  arm  and  has  no  special  training 


36        AN  ENGLISHMAN  IN  THE  RUSSIAN  RANKS 

for  its  duties.  In  several  important  particulars  its 
equipment  and  organization  differs  from  ours. 

At  this  time  there  were  said  to  be  several  English- 
men, two  Frenchmen,  and  Swedes,  Norwegians  and 
Dutch,  in  the  Russian  service.  I  never  met  any  of 
them,  but  I  know  there  was  a  German,  born  and  bred 
in  Brandenburg,  an  officer  in  the  178th  line,  who  was 
permitted  to  remain  in  the  Muscovite  Army;  and 
who  fought  with  invincible  bravery  and  determina- 
tion against  his  countrymen.  There  was  a  mystery 
about  him,  the  actual  nature  of  which  I  never  learned ; 
but  it  was  said  that  he  had  received  some  injury 
which  had  implanted  in  his  breast  a  fierce  hatred  of 
the  land  of  his  birth. 

For  two  days  after  I  had  joined  the  artillery  we 
were  making  forced  marches  to  the  north,  and  on 
the  16th  we  crossed  the  Vistula  at  Plock.  The  next 
day  we  were  in  front  of  the  enemy  between  Biezun 
and  Przasnysz,  with  our  left  flank  resting  on  a 
marshy  lake  near  the  first-named  place.  Beyond 
the  lake  this  flank  was  supported  by  a  very  large  body 
of  cavalry  —  twenty-four  regiments  I  think,  or  not 
less  than  14,000  men.  This  large  force  effectually 
kept  off  the  much  inferior  German  cavalry.  It  suf- 
fered a  good  deal  from  shell-fire,  but  our  artillery 
prevented  the  Prussian  infantry  from  inflicting  any 
losses  on  it. 

The  country  had  been  raided  by  the  Germans  be- 
fore our  arrival,  and  they  had  committed  many  atro- 
cities. The  young  women  had  been  abused,  and  the 
older  ones  cruelly  ill-treated.     The  hamlets  and  iso- 


THE  FIRST  FIGHT  37 

lated  farms  had  been  burnt  down ;  in  some  cases  the 
ruins  were  still  smouldering;  and  what  had  become 
of  the  inhabitants  did  not  appear.  Some  at  least 
had  been  slain :  for  we  found  the  body  of  one  woman 
lying,  head  downwards,  in  a  filthy  gutter  which 
drained  a  farmyard;  and  on  the  other  side  of  the 
building,  two  men  hanging  from  the  same  tree.  The 
woman  had  been  killed  by  a  blow  on  the  head  which 
had  smashed  the  skull,  and  her  body  had  been  treated 
with  shameful  irreverence.  The  gunners  of  the  bat- 
tery buried  these  three  poor  creatures  in  the  same 
grave  while  we  were  waiting  for  orders  to  go  into 
action. 

Afterwards,  while  searching  the  ruined  house,  the 
men  found  the  body  of  a  bed-ridden  cripple  who  had 
been  murdered  by  bayonet-thrusts;  and,  under  the 
bed,  were  three  young  children  half  dead  with  fright 
and  starvation.  There  was  also  a  baby  of  a  few 
months  old,  lying  in  its  cot,  dead  from  want  of  food 
and  attention,  we  supposed,  as  there  were  no  marks 
of  grosser  violence  on  the  little  mite. 

These  sights  and  others  seen  in  the  neighbourhood 
had  a  terrible  effect  on  the  usually  phlegmatic  Rus- 
sian soldiers,  and  afterwards  cost  many  Germans 
their  lives:  for  I  know  that  wounded  men  and  pris- 
oners were  slain  in  retaliation,  and  civilians  too, 
when  portions  of  the  frontier  were  crossed,  as  will 
be  found  recorded  later  on. 

We  were  puzzled  what  to  do  with  the  children,  for 
it  would  have  been  inhuman  to  leave  them  in  a  plun- 
dered and  wrecked  home ;  the  oldest  appearing  to  be 


38       AN  ENGLISHMAN  IN  THE  RUSSIAN  RANKS 

not  more  than  six  years  old.  It  was  remembered 
that  we  had  seen  a  woman  at  a  cottage  two  miles  to 
the  rear,  and  so,  accompanied  by  an  orderly,  I  rode 
back  with  them.  We  found  several  women  taking 
refuge  in  the  house,  and,  though  we  could  not  under- 
stand one  another,  it  was  evident  that  we  were  leaving 
the  poor  little  creatures  amongst  friends,  as  I  could 
see  by  the  attitude  of  the  orderly. 

When  we  got  back  to  the  farm  we  found  that  the 
battery  had  been  advanced,  and  we  had  some  diffi- 
culty in  finding  it.  I  had  to  leave  that  work  to  the 
orderly,  an  old  non-commissioned  officer  named 
Chouraski,  who  afterwards  acted  as  my  servant. 

The  battery,  with  the  rest  of  the  regiment,  and 
several  others,  about  200  guns  in  all,  was  massed 
behind  a  sandbank  —  not  a  wise  arrangement. 
Other  batteries  were  bringing  a  cross-fire  to  bear  from 
distances  which  I  computed  to  be  two  and  three  miles 
from  our  position.  The  Germans  were  evidently 
suffering  severely,  and  so  were  we.  One  of  our  bat- 
taries  had  all  its  guns  dismounted  or  put  out  of  ac- 
tion, and  many  other  guns  were  destroyed,  though 
in  some  cases  the  gunners  got  them  on  fresh  wheels, 
or  even  limbers.  All  the  men  were  cool  and  brave 
beyond  praise,  though  the  effects  of  the  fire  were 
very  terrible.  One  shell  burst  as  it  hit  the  body  of  a 
gunner,  who  was  literally  blown  to  pieces.  Another 
shot  smashed  away  the  head  of  a  man  standing  close 
to  me.  He  threw  up  his  hands,  and  stood  rigid  so 
long  that  I  thought  he  was  not  going  to  fall.  The 
sight  of  the  headless  trunk  standing  there  with  blood 


THE  FIRST  FIGHT  39 

streaming  over  the  shoulders  was  so  horrible  that  it 
was  quite  a  relief  to  the  nerves  when  he  dropped. 
The  gunners,  who  had  stood  still  paralyzed  bj  the 
sight,  resumed  their  work;  but  they  had  not  fired 
more  than  a  round  or  two,  when  a  shell  smashed  the 
gun-shield  and  wiped  out  the  whole  detachment.  A 
piece  of  this  shell  entered  the  forehead  of  my  horse 
and  it  fell  like  a  pole-axed  ox,  dying  with  scarcely  si 
quiver  of  the  muscles. 

Although  the  shield  was  destroyed  the  gun  was  not 
put  out  of  action,  and  I  got  a  couple  of  men  from 
another  gun,  and  we  continued  to  fire  it.  This  went 
on  hour  after  hour,  until  all  the  shells  (shrapnel  and 
common)  were  expended.  Twice  a  fresh  supply  was 
brought  up  by  the  reserve  ammunition  column  men, 
and  altogether  about  500  rounds  per  gun  were  shot 
off  in  this  part  of  the  field,  or  about  100,000  in  all. 
As  there  were  at  least  600  guns  in  action  it  is  prob- 
able that  500,000  shells  were  thrown  against  the  en- 
emy ;  an  enormous  number ;  and  nobody  will  be  sur- 
prised to  learn  that  the  slaughter  was  terrible. 
Many  of  our  guns  were  cleared  of  men  over  and  over 
again,  reserve  gunners  being  sent  up  from  the  rear 
as  they  were  required,  the  men  running  up  quite 
eager  to  be  engaged,  and,  generally  speaking,  taking 
no  notice  of  the  casualties  which  were  constantly 
occurring  close  to  them. 

I  strove  hard  to  draw  the  attention  of  every  officer 
within  reach  to  the  faulty  position  of  the  guns ;  but 
all  were  very  excited,  and  my  unfortunate  ignorance 
of  their  language  prevented  me  from  making  myself 


40        AN  ENGLISHMAN  IN  THE  RUSSIAN  RANKS 

understood.  I  did  not  know  wliat  had  become  of 
Major  Polcliow,  but  late  in  the  afternoon  he  came 
up  with  a  staff  officer,  and  I  pointed  out  to  him  the 
unnecessary  slaughter  which  was  taking  place  owing 
to  the  exposed  position  of  the  guns.  He  said  that 
the  error  had  been  observed  long  before,  but  that  it 
was  considered  to  be  unwise  to  retire  them.  I^ow, 
however,  so  many  of  the  artillerymen  had  fallen  that 
dozens  of  the  guns  were  silenced,  so  an  attempt  was 
made  to  draw  back  the  most  exposed  of  the  batteries. 
The  horses  had  been  sheltered  in  a  hollow  a  hundred 
yards  in  the  rear,  yet  even  in  their  comparatively 
protected  position  so  many  of  them  had  been  killed 
and  mangled  that  it  was  only  possible  to  move  back 
three  guns  at  a  time. 

The  Germans  observed  the  movement,  with  the 
result  that  men,  guns,  waggons,  and  horses,  were 
smashed  to  pieces  in  a  horrible  and  very  nerve-trying 
confusion.  Many  of  the  incidents  were  almost  too 
horrible  to  be  described.  The  leg  of  one  man  was 
blown  off  by  a  bursting  shell.  He  saved  himself  from 
falling  by  clutching  a  gun-carriage ;  but  this  was  on 
the  move  and  dragged  him  down.  The  bleeding  was 
stopped  by  a  roughly  improvised  tourniquet ;  he  was 
laid  on  the  ground  with  his  coat  under  his  head  and 
left  to  his  fate. 

When  the  guns  were  drawn  back  to  the  new  posi- 
tion very  few  casualties  occurred;  but  at  this  time 
the  Germans  made  a  determined  onset  with  huge 
masses  of  infantry  in  close  columns  of  companies  — 
an  amazing  formation,  but  one  which  I  was  prepared 


THE  FIRST  FIGHT  41 

to  see  executed,   knowing  their  general  tactics   as 
practised  on  peace  manceuvres. 

At  this  moment  we  had  only  twelve  shells  per  gun 
left.  These  twelve  cut  great  lanes  deep  into  tho 
advancing  masses,  but  did  not  stop  them,  and  orders 
were  given  to  retire.  Two  of  our  guns  were  drawn 
away  by  the  prolonge  (that  is,  by  means  of  ropes 
manned  by  men  on  foot),  and  two  were  abandoned. 
We  should  certainly  have  been  overtaken  and  de- 
stroyed; but  about  a  thousand  yards  to  the  rear  we 
found  three  regiments  of  infantry  halted  in  a  slight 
hollow  of  the  ground.  These  12,000  men  suddenly 
rushed  forward  and  opened  a  tremendous  fusillade 
on  the  advancing  masses,  bringing  them  down  so 
fast  that  the  appearance  of  falling  men  was  continu- 
ous and  had  a  very 'extraordinary  effect.  But  they 
were  not  stopped,  and  our  infantry  was  compelled  to 
fall  back  with  the  guns,  losing  heavily  from  the  fire 
which  the  Germans  kept  up  as  they  advanced. 

Our  infantry,  like  that  of  the  Germans,  kept  much 
too  close  a  formation,  and  the  losses  were  therefore 
appalling.  Thus,  early  in  the  war,  all  the  Russian 
units  were  at  full  strength;  infantry  four  battalions 
per  regiment  —  fully  4,000  men.  The  three  regi- 
ments behind  us  lost  half  their  strength,  equal  to 
6,000  men,  in  twenty  minutes ;  and  the  remnant  was 
saved  only  by  reaching  a  pine-wood  about  a  mile  in 
length  and  some  300  yards  in  depth.  This  enabled 
them  to  check  the  Germans ;  and  two  batteries  of  ar- 
tillery coming  up,  evidently  sent  from  another  divis- 
ion to  support  us,  they  were  compelled  to  halt,  lying 


42       AN  ENGLISHMAN  IN  THE  RUSSIAN  RANKS 

down  on  the  ground  for  such  shelter  as  it  afforded,  to 
lyait  for  their  own  artillery.  This  did  not  come  up 
until  it  was  nearly  dusk.  Before  it  opened  fire  we 
began  to  retreat  and  we  were  not  pursued. 

We  fell  back  on  two  small  hamlets  with  a  farm 
between  them,  and  here  we  entrenched  ourselves, 
putting  the  buildings  into  a  state  of  defence.  Dis- 
tant firing  was  heard  all  night,  and  we  received  a 
fresh  supply  of  ammunition,  and  heard  that  150  of 
the  guns  were  saved.  As  we  had  thirty  with  us  it 
was  estimated  that  about  twenty  had  fallen  into  the 
hands  of  the  enemy  besides  twenty  or  thirty  machine- 
guns. 

Outposts  reporting  that  the  German  division  which 
had  pursued  us  had  retired  northwards,  I  proposed, 
as  soon  as  it  was  light  enough  for  us  to  see  our  way, 
that  a  party  should  go  out  to  look  for  the  wounded 
men  of  our  battery.  These  brave  fellows  had  done 
their  duty  as  only  heroes  do  it  —  without  a  moment's 
hesitation,  or  the  least  flinching  at  the  most  trying 
moments;  and  with  scarcely  a  groan  from  the  hor- 
ribly wounded,  whose  sufferings  must  have  been  ex- 
cruciating. 

Although  unable  to  understand  a  word  I  uttered, 
all  who  stood  by,  when  informed  by  Polchow  of  what 
was  proposed,  volunteered  to  accompany  me.  I  took 
about  thirty  men  with  stretchers,  which  were  mostly 
made  of  hurdles  obtained  at  the  farm. 

It  was  about  three  English  miles  to  the  spot  where 
the  batteries  had  been  first  posted  and  the  whole  dis- 
tance was  thickly  littered  with  dead  bodies  of  Ger- 


2; 

o 

H 
CJ 
< 

o 

O 

o 
o 

w 
J 

H 
J? 

CO 

c/: 

ID 
Pi 


THE  FIRST  FIGHT  43 

mans  and  Russians  intermingled.  All  the  wounded 
except  those  desperately  hurt  had  been  removed,  but 
none  of  the  enemy  were  about.  They  appeared  to 
be  kept  off  by  strong  patrols  of  our  cavalry,  which 
could  be  seen  in  the  distance ;  and,  doubtless,  the  Ger- 
man horsemen  were  in  view,  as  desultory  shots  were 
fired  from  time  to  time. 

Dying  men  made  piteous  appeals  for  drink.  One 
poor  fellow  expired  while  we  were  in  the  act  of  at- 
tending to  him.  The  horribly  inhuman  nature  of 
the  Germans  was  evinced  by  the  circumstance  that 
they  had  made  prisoners  of  all  the  wounded  who 
would  probably  recover,  and  count  in  their  lists  of 
capture;  but  had  left  the  mortal  cases  (even  their 
own)  unattended,  to  linger  out  a  dreadful  and  agon- 
ized end.  Their  lack  of  feeling  was  fiendish.  They 
had  not  even  endeavoured  to  alleviate  the  sufferings 
of  the  men  thus  abandoned:  for  we  found  one  Ger- 
man groaning,  and  seemingly  praying  for  succour, 
pinned  down  under  a  dead  horse.  He  was  not  even 
dangerously  hurt,  and  would,  I  think,  recover  under 
the  treatment  he  would  receive  from  the  Russians. 
Por  though  these  northern  men  were  often  barbarous 
enough  on  the  field  of  battle,  they  were  never  cruel 
to  their  prisoners,  or  to  injured  men,  unless  these 
were  known  to  have  been  guilty  of  atrocities. 

The  sights  of  that  battle-field,  and  others  which  I 
afterwards  witnessed,  will  be  a  nightmare  to  the  end 
of  life.  I  had  often  read  of  rivers  "  running  red 
with  blood,"  and  thought  this  simply  poetic  exag- 
geration; but  when  we  went  to  a  brook  to  obtain 


44        AN  ENGLISHMAN  IN  THE  RUSSIAN  RANKS 

water  for  some  gasping  men,  I  noticed  that  it  was 
horribly  tinged  with  dark  red  streaks,  which  seemed 
to  be  partly  coagulated  blood.  Some  light  frag- 
ments which  floated  by  were  undoubtedly  human 
brains;  yet  at  their  urgent  entreaty  we  gave  of  this 
water  to  poor  creatures  to  drink,  for  no  other  was 
available. 

This  horror  was  not  comparable  to  what  we  wit- 
nessed when  we  arrived  at  the  spot  where  the  artillery 
slaughter  had  taken  place.  The  ground  was  covered 
with  dark  patches  —  blood  blotches.  Fragments  of 
flesh,  arms,  legs,  limbs  of  horses,  and  scattered  in- 
testines, lay  everywhere  about  that  horrible  "  first 
position."  On  the  ground  lay  a  human  eye  and 
within  an  inch  or  two  of  it,  a  cluster  of  teeth ;  all  that 
renfained  of  some  poor  head  that  had  been  dashed 
away.  Where  the  body  was  that  had  owned  these 
relics  did  not  appear.  The  force  of  impact  had 
probably  driven  them  yards  and  yards ;  and  it  was  a 
mere  chance  that  they  met  my  view.  Close  to  one  of 
our  guns,  too  badly  broken  to  be  worth  carrying 
away  by  the  enemy,  were  two  brawny  hands,  tightly 
clasping  the  handle  of  the  sponge  with  which  their 
owner  had  been  cleaning  the  piece  when  they  had 
been  riven  from  his  body.  The  man  was  close  by,  a 
mere  mass  of  smashed  flesh  and  bones,  with  thousands 
of  beastly  flies  battening  on  his  gore,  as  they  were 
on  that  of  all  the  corpses.  The  sight  was  unbearable. 
Sick  and  nearly  fainting,  I  had  to  lean  against  a 
broken  waggon  to  recover  myself. 

Our  wounded  had  been  murdered.     There  could 


THE  FIRST  FIGHT  45 

"be  no  question  of  that.  For  we  had  not  left  any  be- 
hind who  were  capable  of  fighting,  yet  a  dozen  had 
been  finished  off  by  bayonet  wounds  —  and  German 
bayonets  make  awful  jagged  wounds  because  their 
weapons  have  saw-backs. 

One  bayoneted  gunner  was  not  quite  dead.  At 
long  intervals  —  about  a  minute  it  seemed  to  me  — 
he  made  desperate  efforts  to  breathe ;  and  every  time 
he  did  so  bubbles  of  blood  welled  from  the  wound  in 
his  breast,  and  a  horrible  gurgling  sound  came  from 
both  throat  and  breast.  There  were  two  doctors  in 
our  party,  but  they  looked  at  each  other,  and  shook 
their  heads  when  they  examined  this  miserable  man. 
Nothing  could  be  done  for  him  except  to  place  him 
in  a  more  comfortable  position.     War  is  hellish. 

We  found  another  of  our  men  alive.  His  plight 
was  so  terrible  that  it  was  hardlv  worth  while  to  in- 
crease  his  suffering  by  carrying  him  away.  We  did 
so :  but  he  died  before  we  had  gone  two  versts.  On 
that  part  of  the  field  which  the  Germans  had  been 
compelled  to  cross  without  waiting  to  carry  out  their 
fell  work,  we  found  more  survivors,  and  took  back  a 
dozen,  of  whom  three  were  Germans.  There  hap- 
pened to  be  no  Red  Cross  men  with  our  division  just 
then;  but  we  sent  them  to  the  rear  in  empty  pro- 
vision waggons. 

This  is  what  I  saw  of  the  battle  of  Biezum,  if  this 
is  its  correct  designation.  According  to  Polchow 
the  Russian  centre  was  at  Radnazovo,  a  town,  or  large 
village,  eleven  versts  further  east;  and  the  whole 
front  extended  more  than  thirty  versts,  though  the 


46       AN  ENGLISHMAN  IN  THE  RUSSIAN  RANKS 

hottest  fighting  was  near  Biezum.  It  was  after- 
wards reported  that  10,000  Russians  were  killed  in 
this  engagement,  and  40,000  wounded.  The  Ger- 
mans must  have  lost  heavily  too.  I  saw  thousands 
of  their  dead  lying  on  the  ground  near  Biezum  alone. 
The  fight  was  not  a  victory  for  the  Russians,  and 
scarcely  could  be  claimed  as  such  by  the  Germans. 
The  two  forces  remained  in  contact,  and  fighting  con- 
tinued with  more  or  less  intensity  until  it  developed 
into  what  modern  battles  seem  destined  to  be,  a  pro- 
longed series  of  uninterrupted  operations. 


/^, 


CHAPTEK  V 

THE   FIGHTING    UP    TO    THE    26tH    ArGUST 

Theee  appeared  to  be  nearly  800  men  in  Polciiow's 
battery  when  we  went  into  action :  only  fifty-nine  re- 
mained with  the  four  guns  we  saved  at  the  close  of 
the  day,  and  not  one  of  these  escaped  a  more  or  less 
serious  hurt^  though  some  were  merely  scratched  by 
small  fragments  of  shell  or  bruised  by  shrapnel 
bullets.  At  least  twenty  of  the  men  would  have  been 
justified  in  going  to  hospital;  several  ultimately  had 
to  do  so,  and  one  died.  Even  British  soldiers  could 
not  have  shown  greater  heroism.  Chouraski,  the 
non-commissioned  ofiicer  who  had  attached  himself  to 
me,  had  a  bullet  through  the  fleshy  part  of  the  left 
arm,  yet  he  brought  me  some  hot  soup  and  black 
bread  after  dark ;  whence  obtained,  or  how  prepared, 
I  have  no  idea.  I  was  much  touched  by  the  man's 
kindness.  All  the  soldiers  with  whom  I  came  in  con- 
tact were  equally  kind:  and  I  have  noticed  that  the 
men  of  other  armies  with  whom  I  have  come  in  con- 
tact in  the  course  of  my  life,  even  the  Germans, 
seemed  to  see  something  in  my  personality  which  at- 
tracted them,  and  to  desire  to  be  friendly.  Perhaps 
they  instinctively  realized  that  I  am  an  admirer  of 
the  military  man;  or  perhaps  it  was  the  bonhomie 
which  is  universal  amongst   soldiers.     Certainly  I 

47 


48       AN  ENGLISHMAN  IN  THE  RUSSIAN  RANKS 

got  on  well  with  them  all,  though  some  time  elapsed 
before  we  could  understand  a  simple  sentence  spoken 
on  either  side. 

For  two  days  I  was  not  fit  for  much :  then  I  went 
to  the  front  with  a  detachment  of  sixty  gunners  which 
had  arrived  from  Petrograd  via  Warsaw.  I  found 
the  battery  and  the  rest  of  the  regiment  encamped 
to  the  westward  of  Przasuysz. 

Heavy  fighting  was  going  on  somewhere  in  front; 
but  the  contending  troops  were  not  in  sight.  The 
whole  country  was  full  of  smoke,  and  the  smell  of 
burning  wood  and  straw  was  nearly  suffocating.  The 
Germans  had  set  fire  to  everything  that  would  burn, 
including  the  woods.  During  the  night  heavy  show- 
ers of  rain  fell,  and  these  extinguished  most  of  the 
fires  and  saved  a  vast  quantity  of  timber. 

I  could  see  that  the  Germans  had  been  driven  back 
a  considerable  distance;  and  the  Russians  claimed 
to  have  won  great  victories  in  the  neighbourhood  of 
Stshutchen  and  Graevo,  and  to  have  already  passed 
500,000  men  across  the  German  border.  That  they 
were  making  progress  was  obvious;  and  on  the  20th 
August  I  witnessed  some  desperate  infantry  fighting. 

The  Germans  came  on,  as  they  always  did,  in  im- 
mense columns,  literally  jammed  together,  so  that 
their  men  were  held  under  fire  an  unnecessarily  long 
time.  The  usual  newspaper  phrase,  "  Falling  in 
heaps,"  was  quite  justifiable  in  this  case.  Thousands 
fell  in  ten  minutes ;  and  the  remainder  broke  and  fled 
in  spite  of  the  efforts  of  their  officers  to  stop  them.  I 
was  well  in  front  and  saw  what  took  place.     The 


THE  FIGHTING  UP  TO  26th  AUGUST  49 

German  officers  struck  their  men  with  their  swords 
and  in  several  cases  cut  them  down;  and  I  saw  one 
of  them  fire  his  revolver  into  the  crowd.  I  did  not 
actually  see  men  fall,  but  he  must  have  shot  several. 

The  Russians,  too,  adopted  a  much  closer  forma- 
tion than  was  wise,  and  suffered  severely  in  conse- 
quence, but  they  never  wavered.  The  Germans  came 
on  again  and  again,  nine  times  in  all,  and  proved 
themselves  wonderful  troops.  Four  out  of  the  nine 
charges  they  drove  home,  and  there  was  some  desper- 
ate bayonet  fighting  in  which  the  Teutons  proved  to 
be  no  match  for  the  Muscovites.  The  last  named 
used  the  "  weapon  of  victory  "  with  terrible  effect, 
disproving  all  the  modern  theories  about  the  impossi- 
bility of  opposing  bodies  being  able  to  close,  or  to 
come  into  repeated  action  on  the  same  day. 

On  the  contrary,  it  may  be  taken  as  certainly 
proved  that  men's  nerves  are  more  steeled  than  ever 
they  were,  and  that  the  same  body  of  men  can  make 
repeated  and  successive  attacks  within  very  short 
periods  of  time.  In  the  above  attacks  fresh  bodies 
of  troops  were  brought  up  each  time,  but  the  rem- 
nants of  the  battalions  previously  used  were  always 
driven  on  in  front.  I  noticed  this:  on  three  occa- 
sions the  84:th  regiment  (probably  Landwehr)  formed 
part  of  the  attacking  force. 

"  Driven  on  "  is  the  correct  term.  The  German 
officers  invai'iably  drove  their  men  in  front  of  them. 
Arriving  in  contact  with  their  foes,  the  soldiers 
fought  with  fury.  It  was  the  preliminary  advance 
that  seemed  to  discompose  them:  and,  indeed,  their 


50        AN  ENGLISHMAN  IN  THE  RUSSIAN  RANKS 

losses  were  dreadful.  Thej  certainly  left  at  least 
30,000  dead  and  wounded  on  the  ground  on  the  20th. 
The  greater  number  were  dead,  because  those  who 
lay  helpless  received  a  great  part  of  the  fire  intended 
for  their  retreating  comrades,  and  thus  were  riddled 
through  and  through. 

The  Russian  artillery  played  on  the  masses  both 
when  they  advanced  and  retreated;  but  the  fight 
was  chiefly  an  infantry  one.  The  full  effect  of  the 
guns  could  not  be  brought  into  play  without  danger 
of  injury  to  our  own  men.  In  the  end  the  Russians 
chased  the  enemy  back  and  the  artillery  was  advanced 
to  support  them.  Considerable  ground  was  gained; 
but  four  or  five  versts  to  the  rear  of  their  first  position 
the  Germans  were  found  to  be  strongly  entrenched. 
The  day's  fight  was  finished  by  a  charge  of  a  large 
body  of  Cossacks  and  Russian  light  cavalry.  They 
swept  away  the  force  of  German  horsemen  who  ven- 
tured to  oppose  them,  and  also  drove  back  several 
battalions  of  infantry.  That  part  of  the  Russian 
Army  which  had  been  engaged  bivouacked  on  the 
ground  they  had  fought  over. 

The  cries  of  the  wounded  during  the  night  were 
terrible  to  hear,  and  came  from  many  different  points 
and  distances.  Hundreds  must  have  died  from  want 
of  attention,  and  hundreds  more,  on  both  sides,  were 
murdered.  The  Germans,  who  were  hovering  about 
in  small  parties,  persistently  fired  on  the  Red  Cross 
men,  so  little  could  be  done  for  the  dying;  and  the 
cruelties  which  were  perpetrated,  and  which  were 
revealed  (so  I  was  told)  by  the  shouts,  entreaties  and 


THE  FIGHTING  UP  TO  26th  AUGUST  51 

imprecations  of  the  sufferers,  aroused  a  nasty  spirit 
in  the  Russians,  and  particularly  in  the  Cossacks,  and 
led  to  fearful  reprisals,  so  that  in  one  part  of  the 
field  I  know  that  not  a  German  was  left  alive.  I  am 
bound  to  add  that  after  I  had  seen  two  Russians 
brought  in  with  their  eyes  gouged  out,  and  another 
with  his  nose  and  ears  cropped,  and  his  lacerated 
tongue  lolling  from  his  mouth,  I  had  not  a  word  of 
protest  to  utter  against  these  reprisals.  The  Ger- 
mans were  finished  fiends,  and  deserved  all  they  got 
from  a  body  of  men  notorious  for  their  fierceness; 
and  they  did  get  it.  I  will  say  this,  though:  that 
throughout  the  campaign  no  instance  of  a  Russian 
injuring  a  woman  or  a  child  came  under  my  notice ; 
nor  did  I  hear  of  any  such  cases.  But  I  was  told 
that  three  Prussian  girls,  who  were  seen  to  be  on 
friendly  terms  with  some  Russian  soldiers,  were 
nearly  flogged  to  death  by  their  own  people ;  and  the 
horrible  treatment  the  Polish  women  received  from 
the  hands  of  the  Germans  has  already  been  men- 
tioned, and  was  ever  recurring  during  the  whole  of 
the  time  I  spent  with  the  Russian  Army. 

I  would  here  make  mention  of  the  quality  of  the 
Russian  and  German  soldiery.  Conscription  sweeps 
into  the  ranks  of  an  army  numbers  of  men  who  are 
totally  unfit  for  a  military  life  and  a  still  further 
number  who  abhor  it.  In  the  present  war,  hatred 
and  vindictive  feeling  generally  has  run  very  high 
on  the  northern  side  of  the  fighting  area;  and  this 
circumstance  seems  to  have  greatly  increased  the 
war-like  instinct  of  the  masses,  and  consequently  de- 


52        AN  ENGLISHMAN  IN  THE  RUSSIAN  RANKS 

creased  the  number  of  what  I  may  term  the  natural 
non-combatants.  In  the  Russian  ranks,  and  I  believe 
in  the  German  also,  this  class  is  weeded  out  as  far  as 
possible,  and  relegated  to  the  organizations  which 
have  least  to  do  with  the  fighting  line  —  that  is,  the 
administrative  services,  and  troops  organized  to 
maintain  the  lines  of  communication.  But  these 
fellows  —  the  natural  non-combatants,  or  haters  of 
the  soldier's  life,  I  mean  —  are,  when  found  in  the 
fighting  ranks,  the  most  detestable  scoundrels  imag- 
inable ;  and  I  believe  the  greater  part  of  the  atrocities 
committed  may  be  laid  to  their  charge.  They  lose 
no  opportunity  of  indulging  in  lust  and  murder ;  and 
as  in  civil  life  they  are  mostly  wastrels,  thieves  and 
would-be  murderers,  they  find  in  war  an  opportunity 
to  indulge  in  those  vices  which,  practised  in  time  of 
peace,  would  bring  them  to  the  prison  and  the  noose. 
In  other  words,  the  scum  of  the  big  cities  is  brought 
into  the  army,  and  often  proves  as  great  a  curse  to 
its  own  administrative,  as  it  does  to  that  of  the  enemy. 
!N'ot  all  the  Germans  were  fiends  —  not  all  the  Rus- 
sians saints. 

Early  in  the  war  many  of  the  German  regiments 
were  composed  of  exceedingly  fine-looking  men. 
There  was  a  decided  deterioration  later  on,  but  this 
was  more  in  appearance  than  quality:  they  still 
fought  with  determined,  or  desperate,  courage;  I  am 
inclined  to  think,  often  the  last-named.  They  were 
taught  that  the  only  way  to  escape  the  brutality  of 
their  ofiicers  was  to  face  the  courage  of  their  foes. 
They   chose    the    latter.     Often    hundreds  —  whole 


THE  FIGHTING  UP  TO  26th  AUGUST  53 

companies  together  —  rushed  over  to  the  Russians, 
threw  down  their  arms,  and  surrendered  themselves 
prisoners  of  war.  I^o  such  instance  ever  occurred 
in  the  Russian  ranks.  The  Russian  soldier  is  a  very 
pious  man,  and,  like  the  North  Aryan  stock  from 
which  he  has  sprung,  is  a  great  worshipper  of  ances- 
try and  his  superiors.  His  commanding  officer,  like 
his  Czar,  is  a  Father,  or  a  Little  Father  —  a  sacred 
being  —  his  priest  as  well  as  his  temporal  master. 
The  consequence  is  that  officer  and  soldier  are  one,  a 
conjunction  that  is  of  great  value  from  the  military 
standpoint. 

This  is  never  the  case  in  the  German  Army.  The 
Teutonic  officer  is  a  brute  and  a  slave-driver,  and 
his  soldiers  fear  him  if  they  do  not  hate  him.  I 
doubt  if  any  German  soldier  ever  gets  through  his 
training  vrithout  being  repeatedly  struck  by  all  his 
superiors  from  the  unter-officer  upwards.  Feathers 
show  how  the  wind  sets.  A  Prussian  regiment  (the 
Pomeranian  Grenadiers)  was  route-marching.  One 
of  the  musicians  blew  a  false  note:  the  bandmaster 
immediately  turned  and  struck  the  man  a  stinging 
blow  on  the  face.  I  believe  the  German  Army  is  the 
only  one  in  the  world  where  such  an  incident  could 
occur.  Like  master,  like  man.  One  brute  breeds 
another. 

Taken  on  the  whole  the  old  adage  that  ''one  vol- 
unteer is  worth  two  pressed  men  "  is  true ;  but  an 
army  of  ten  or  twelve  millions  could  not  be  success- 
fully met  by  one  of  a  million  or  two.  ISTumbers  must 
count  when  they  are  excessive;  though  things  mill- 


54       AN  ENGLISHMAN  IN  THE  RUSSIAN  RANKS 

tate  against  this  rule  sometimes.  If  an  army  has 
not  its  heart  in  a  contest  very  inferior  numbers  may 
win.  In  the  present  case  it  soon  became  clear  to  me 
that  both  the  great  nations  had  their  hearts  in  the 
war :  the  surprising  thing  is  that  Russia  with  her 
huge  hordes  has  so  far  done  so  little  —  Germany  hard 
pressed  on  all  sides  effected  so  much. 

These  words  will  reveal  that  I  do  not  take  the  gen- 
eral view  that  Kussia  is  progressing  as  fast  and  as 
well  as  she  might  reasonably  be  expected  to  do.^  Yet 
I  am  unable  to  point  out  very  clearly  where  her  prin- 
cipal defect  lies.  She  brought  up  troops  very  rap- 
idly; and  by  the  20th  August  she  had  an  enormous 
army  in  the  field  on  the  East  Prussian  frontier.  At 
this  time,  and  later  on,  I  learned  that  her  lines  ex- 
tended throughout  the  German  border  and  far  along 
that  of  Austria  to  the  Bug ;  and  she  was  said  to  have 
at  least  5,000,000  men  massed  in  these  lines.  The 
Germans  had  not  nearly  so  many  —  probably  not 
more  than  2,500,000.  or  3,000,000;  but  they  had  the 
power,  by  means  of  their  railways,  to  concentrate  on 
a  given  point  very  rapidly,  and  so  equal,  or  more 
than  equal,  the  Russians,  who,  being  without  ade- 
quate railway  communication,  could  not  take  advant- 
age of  their  superior  numbers.  If  the  last-named 
saw  a  weakness  in  any  part  of  the  German  defensive 
and  attempted  to  take  advantage  of  it,  before  they 
could  bring  up  an  adequate  number  of  troops  the 
Germans  had  discovered  their  intentions  and  rushed 
up  a  sufficient  force  to  secure  the  threatened  point: 

1  This  paragraph  was  written  four  or  five  months  ago. 


THE  FIGHTING  UP  TO  26th  AUGUST  55 

and  this  they  did  by  bringing  men  from  positions  so 
numerous,  and  so  distant,  that  they  nowhere  ma- 
terially weakened  their  line ;  or,  if  they  did  so,  they 
were  enabled  to  conceal  the  fact. 

It  is  really  very  wonderful.  A  great  part  of  Cen- 
tral Europe,  Austria  and  Germany,  is  surrounded  by 
a  ring  of  armed  men,  extending,  roughly,  a  distance 
of  1,500  miles,  and  defended  by  a  force  of  about 
14,000,000  men,  or  some  five  men  to  the  linear  yard. 
This  is,  in  modern  war,  a  sufficient  number  for  effec- 
tive attack  or  defence,  on  ordinary  ground;  but  it  is 
not  too  many,  and  in  prolonged  operation  may  prove 
to  be  too  few  on  some  descriptions  of  terre-plein. 
Yet,  after  ten  months  of  the  fiercest  and  most  destruc- 
tive fighting  the  world  has  ever  seen,  this  ring  of 
armed  men  has  not  been  broken,  though  persistently 
attacked  by  three  of  the  most  powerful  military  na- 
tions on  earth. 

M.J  estimate  of  the  number  of  German  and  Aus- 
trian troops  actually  in  the  fighting-line  at  the  be- 
ginning of  the  war  is  much  in  excess  of  the  numbers 
stated  in  English  newspapers.  I  note  this;  but  do 
not  think  that  14,000,000  is  an  exaggeration.  I 
have  information,  and  am  not  merely  guessing.  !Nor 
are  the  losses  of  the  enemy  overstated  by  me. 

Down  to  the  present  date  the  losses  of  the  Germans 
and  Austrians  amount  to  about  3,000,000  men ;  but 
it  must  be  remembered  that  quite  two-thirds  of  these 
would  be  wounded  men  who  would  recover,  and  go 
back  to  their  respective  fighting-lines;  so  that  the 
actual  number  of  men  permanently  put  out  of  action 


56       AN  ENGLISHMAN  IN  THE  RUSSIAN  RANKS 

is  about  1,000,000,  including  those  accounted  for  by 
the  French,  British,  and  Belgian  armies.  The  losses 
of  the  Russians  are  nearly  2,000,000  men.  Of  these 
the  greater  part  fell  in  the  fighting  I  have  described 
and  am  about  to  describe,  fighting  which  may  be 
called  a  prolonged  battle  for  the  possession  of  War- 
saw on  the  one  side  and  its  defence  on  the  other.  The 
importance  of  this  combat  will  be  recognized  when  it 
is  considered  that  the  taking  of  Warsaw  is  the  first 
necessary  step  towards  the  occupation  of  Petrograd. 

The  vision  of  one  man,  especially  in  war,  is  lim- 
ited ;  and  I  did  not  see  everything  that  took  place  in 
the  region  in  which  I  was.  I  heard  a  good  deal,  and 
was  ever  on  the  watch  to  learn  and  verify,  but  it  could 
not  be  otherwise  than  impossible  to  be  always  sure  — 
always  correct;  and  without  doubt  there  are  many 
errors  in  my  narration.  What  I  saw,  I  saw,  and  this 
may  be  relied  on :  what  I  guessed,  or  was  told,  I  have 
advanced  with  caution.  Taken  as  a  whole  I  think 
my  account  of  the  fighting  in  Poland  and  East  Prus- 
sia is  as  reliable  as  that  of  any  one  man  can  be :  and 
let  it  be  remembered  that  I  held  no  official  position 
which  could  help  me  in  gaining  knowledge. 

On  the  evening  of  the  20th,  and  morning  of  the 
21st,  many  rumors  reached  our  corps  of  Russian  suc- 
cesses in  the  neighbourhoods  of  Gumbinnen  and  Su- 
walki,  places  which  were  said  to  be  but  little  more 
than  100  versts  from  our  position.  The  first-named 
is  an  open  town  in  East  Prussia  twenty-five  versts 
over  the  border;  and  the  news  gave  great  joy  to  our 
troops,  as  it  proved  that  Germany  was  actually  in- 


THE  FIGHTING  UP  TO  26th  AUGUST  57 

vaded.  My  informants  of  the  details  were  Major 
Polcliow  and  two  or  three  officers  who  spoke  a  little 
English  and  French  and  were  able  to  make  them- 
selves understood  to  me. 

There  was  said  to  have  been  desperate  fighting, 
with  heavy  losses,  the  capture  of  many  German  pris- 
oners, and  the  complete  annihilation  of  a  whole  di- 
vision of  the  enemy. 

The  occupation  of  Gumbinnen  was  of  great  im- 
portance because  it  is  on  the  Prussian  direct  line  to 
Vilna,  one  of  the  most  important  railway  centres  in 
this  part  of  Russia  and  perhaps  in  the  whole  empire. 
Although  the  Russians  could  not  maintain  their  hold 
of  it,  its  temporary  occupation,  no  doubt,  had  an  im- 
portant effect,  and  possibly  helped  more  than  seems 
to  have  been  seen  in  saving  Warsaw  from  the  enemy's 
hands.  For  had  they  succeeded  in  seizing  Vilna,  the 
Russian  force  in  Poland  would  have  been  deprived 
largely,  if  not  entirely,  of  reinforcements  and  sup- 
plies in  general.  It  was  one  of  the  peculiarities  of 
the  war  in  Poland  and  East  Prussia  that  neither  side 
seemed  able  to  keep  an  important  position  for  any 
length  of  time.  Places  were  seized  which  had  a 
telling  effect  for  the  moment,  and  which  one  would 
have  thought  would  have  greatly  influenced  the  fate 
of  the  campaign ;  and  yet  they  were  soon  retaken  or 
rendered  untenable  and  the  advantages  of  their 
seizure  lost.  In  fact  the  fighting  swayed  to  and 
fro.  Here  to-day,  there  to-morrow,  the  battle  was 
lost  or  won.     It  was  all  a  question  of  railways. 

On  the  21st  the  Russians  crossed  the  frontier  be- 


58        AN  ENGLISHMAN  IN  THE  RUSSIAN  RANKS 

tween  Janow  and  Chorzellen,  and  advanced  towards 
Ortelsberg,  driving  in  a  force  of  Uhlans  and  smash- 
ing a  battery. 

The  next  day  they  were  met  by  a  force  of  Villen- 
berg,  which  partially  outflanked  us.  Desperate  fight- 
ing ensued,  the  Germans  suffering  terrible  losses :  but 
they  had  an  object  to  effect  —  to  hold  the  Russians 
until  reinforcements  arrived.  These  were  run  down 
rapidly  from  Koenigsberg  and  the  Russians  outnum- 
bered and  forced  back.  The  fight  was  lost  because 
the  Germans  had  a  network  of  railways  behind  them, 
while  the  nearest  Russian  line  was  45  versts  away. 
These  facts  require  no  comment.  A  Russian  railway 
at  Chorzellen  would  have  saved  the  day,  and  led  to 
the  investment  and  probable  fall  of  Koenigsberg.  It 
would  have  made  the  occupancy  of  Tilsit  and  Memel 
permanent,  and  would  almost  certainly  have  changed 
the  results  of  the  campaign  in  this  region. 

As  it  was,  we  had  to  fall  back ;  but  we  did  so  fight- 
ing stubbornly,  and  giving  ground  very  slowly,  rein- 
forcements hourly  arriving  by  march-route.  Finally 
we  made  a  stand  at  Chorzellen,  and  the  Prussians 
tried  their  usual  tactics  of  repeated  attacks  in  masses. 
They  left  10,000  dead  before  the  town  (it  is  scarcely 
more  than  a  big  village),  and  then  entrenched  them- 
selves at  a  hamlet  called  Straffenberg,  several  miles 
in  a  south-westerly  direction  towards  Unterberg :  and 
then  a  terrific  artillery  duel  commenced.  I  calcu- 
lated that  30,000  shots  an  hour  were  fired  from  both 
armies.  The  air,  the  ground,  everywhere  and  every- 
thing, seemed  to  be  alive  with  bursting  shells.     The 


THE  FIGHTING  UP  TO  26th  AUGUST  59 

roar  of  guns  and  explosions  was  incessant  and  quite 
drowned  the  sound  of  the  infantry  firing.  After- 
wards many  men  were  deaf;  I  myseK  could  hear  no 
sounds  for  two  days. 

I  do  not  know  how  many  guns  were  in  action,  nor 
the  calibre  of  them.  On  our  side  only  field  guns  were 
used,  and  if  the  Germans  had  any  of  larger  size  they 
were,  at  this  time,  few  in  number.  Hundreds  of 
machine-guns  were  used  on  both  sides,  and  yet  the 
slaughter  was  not  at  all  in  proportion  to  the  amount 
of  ammunition  expended.  As  in  all  battles,  accord- 
ing to  my  experience,  the  principal  part  of  the  de- 
struction was  due  to  infantry  fire.  Of  course  the 
loss  of  life  was  very  great.  I  can  only  say  the  ground 
was  heaped  with  dead  and  dying.  At  each  succes- 
sive assault  the  Germans  mounted  the  heaps  of  corpses 
to  get  at  our  men  and,  falling  on  their  comrades, 
caused  the  slain  to  lie  in  heaps  and  ridges  in  an  ex- 
traordinary and  dreadful  way.  The  wounded  in  the 
imderlying  layers  must  have  been  suffocated ;  and  the 
blood  ran  down  the  slopes  in  streams. 

This  fearful  form  of  fighting  went  on  from  the 
22nd  to  the  28th  August  without  any  intermission, 
except  occasionally  a  few  hours  in  the  night-time, 
rarely  even  then.  I,  like  others,  sometimes  slept  the 
sleep  of  utter  exhaustion;  but  during  the  wakening 
hours  I  do  not  remember  that  the  firing  ever  entirely 
ceased.  Generally  the  sound  of  it  was  a  continuous 
roar.  The  heavens  were  lit  up  by  the  reflections  of 
discharged  guns  and  bursting  shells,  and  the  pande- 
monium was  dominated  by  a  shrieking  sound,  prob- 


60        AN  ENGLISHMAN  IN  THE  RUSSIAN  RANKS 

ably  occasioned  by  the  rush  of  projectiles  tbrougb  the 
air.  The  terrific  noise  affected  my  brain  so  that  for 
weeks  afterwards  I  was  afflicted  with  a  head-noise  re- 
sembling a  loud  hissing,  almost  intolerable  to  bear  as 
it  interfered  with  necessary  rest. 

The  front  of  this  terrific  battle  was  very  extensive 
' —  200  versts  I  was  told ;  and  the  Russians  claimed 
to  have  had  3,000,000  men  in  action.  At  the  same 
time  fighting  was  going  on  in  Galicia,  and  there  were 
some  isolated  contests,  south  and  west  of  our  position. 
The  fortune  of  the  contending  parties  varied  greatly ; 
in  some  places  the  Prussians  were  forced  back,  in 
others  the  Russians,  i^either  side  had  a  decided  vic- 
tory in  any  part  of  the  field,  and  the  ground  lost  or 
won  never  exceeded  a  verst  or  two  in  extent  and  was 
often  less  than  a  hundred  yards.  So  it  is  proved  that 
close  and  hand-to-hand  fighting  are  not  things  of  the 
past,  as  many  have  thought  them  to  be.  On  the  con- 
trary, close  fighting  is  more  often  and  more  exten- 
sively resorted  to  than  ever  it  has  been  previously, 
even  in  the  open  field ;  and  I  think,  more  fiercely  con- 
tested. At  any  rate  I  saw  several  battalions  on  each 
side  so  nearly  destroyed  that  they  were  practically 
wiped  out.  A  battalion  of  the  9th  West  Siberian 
regiment  on  our  side,  and  a  territorial  battalion  of 
the  59th  Prussians  met  with  such  a  fate.  Not  fifty 
of  the  Russians  nor  more  than  a  dozen  of  the  Germans 
came  out  of  the  scrimmages.  They  were  greatly  out- 
numbered, and  some  of  those  lost  were  probably  taken 
prisoners ;  but  I  can  say,  from  actual  sight  of  the  in- 
cidents, that  in  each  case  the  men  fought  with  des- 


THE  FIGHTING  UP  TO  26th  AUGUST  61 

perate  bravery  and  evinced  no  desire  to  surrender. 
There  was  some  cavalry  fighting  too;  but,  gener- 
ally, the  Kussians  were  numerically  superior  to  their 
foes;  and  the  Germans,  more  often  than  otherwise, 
avoided  proffered  battle.  In  a  few  instances  squad- 
rons and  regiments  charged  one  another,  the  Germans 
always  getting  the  worst  of  it,  and  in  one  case  at 
least  being  much  cut  up.  The  Eussian  cavalry  even 
attacked  infantry,  but  though  they  got  away  without 
serious  loss,  it  is  pretty  evident  that  only  in  excep- 
tional instances  can  cavalry  now  successfully  contend 
•with  modemly  armed  foot  soldiers. 


CHAPTER  VI 

THE    CAVALRY    FIGHTING    BEFORE    KOENIGSBERG 

The  battery  to  which  I  had  attached  mjseK  was  de- 
stroyed on  the  26th.  It  was  overwhelmed  by  an 
opposing  fire  which  nothing  could  withstand,  and  an 
attempt  was  made  to  withdraw  it.  It  was  found  im- 
possible to  limber  up  the  guns:  all  the  horses  were 
killed,  and  only  five  or  six  of  the  drivers  left.  All 
the  guns,  too,  were  damaged ;  and  Polchow,  the  com- 
manding ofiicer,  gave  the  order  for  the  few  men  left 
to  endeavour  to  save  themselves.  As  the  words  were 
I)eing  spoken  a  shell  burst  full  on  him,  and,  riddled 
"by  shrapnel  bullets,  he  dropped  dead  without  a 
struggle.  About  20  men  only  got  away  and  no  horses 
were  saved.  My  own  was  shot  the  moment  I  mounted 
it,  and  pinned  me  to  the  ground  by  its  weight.  I 
■was  exposed  to  the  full  blast  of  the  German  guns  for 
nearly  two  hours.  Partly  shielded  by  the  carcass  I 
escaped  injury,  though  my  clothes  were  torn  to  rags 
by  shrapnel  bullets.  The  escape  was  miraculous. 
By-and-by  the  Germans  fell  back,  after  suffering  mur- 
derous losses;  and  I  was  rescued  from  my  perilous 
position  by  some  infantry  soldiers  of  the  YOth  regi- 
ment. 

The  loss  of  Polchow  was  a  serious  one  to  me, 

although  I  had  known  him  so  short  a  time,  to  say 

62 


THE  CAVALRY  FIGHTING  BEFORE  KOENIGSBERG     63 

nothing  of  the  shock  of  losing  a  friend  from  whose 
hands  I  had  received  many  kindnesses.  Other 
friends,  too,  were  lost  in  these  terrible  fights,  but  the 
non-com.  Chouraski  escaped,  though  he  was  standing 
near  one  of  our  ammunition-carts  when  it  was  struck 
by  a  shell  and  blown  up. 

After  dark  a  party  went  out  to  bring  in  the  bodies 
of  Major  Polchow  and  two  other  artillery  officers 
who  had  lost  their  lives  during  the  day.  It  was  rain- 
ing heavily  at  the  time;  but  the  Germans  heard  us, 
and  opened  a  sniping  fire,  by  which  we  lost  one  man 
killed  and  another  wounded. 

We  returned  the  fire,  but  had  nothing  to  aim  at 
except  the  occasional  flash  of  a  rifle;  so  we  retired, 
carrying  the  bodies  of  our  dead  comrades  with  us, 
and  buried  them  in  the  middle  of  a  small  pine-copse, 
with  rough  wooden  crosses  at  the  heads  of  the  graves, 
on  which  we  hung  their  caps  and  accoutrements  after 
the  custom  prevailing  during  this  campaign.  The 
Russians  always  scrupulously  revered  German  graves 
so  marked:  I  am  sorry  to  record  that  the  Germans 
were  not  so  humane,  but  hurt  the  feelings  and  aroused 
the  ire  of  us  all,  men  and  officers  alike,  by  their 
beastly  indecencies  on  the  graves  of  brave  men,  the 
very  meanest  of  whom  would  have  blushed  to  be  so 
dirty-minded  and  cowardly. 

The  battery  was  ordered  to  be  reformed,  men,  guns 
and  horses  being  drawn  from  some  reserves  which,  I 
believe,  came  via  Petrograd ;  but  as  I  would  not  have 
cared  to  serve  under  the  officer  appointed  to  com- 
mand it,  I  sought  and  obtained  from  a  Staff  Officer 


64       AN  ENGLISHMAN  IN  THE  RUSSIAN  RANKS 

a  permit,  signed  by  the  Grand  Duke  Nicholas,  en- 
abling me  to  go  practically  where  I  liked.  For  a 
time  I  was  with  the  11th  Corps,  then  with  the  5th, 
and  afterwards  with  several  detachments  and  corps. 
It  was  a  fortunate  thing  that  I  followed  this  course,  as 
it  enabled  me  to  see  much  more  and  learn  more  than 
I  could  have  done  had  I  remained  attached  to  a  small 
unit. 

On  the  2'rth  and  28  th  there  was  very  severe  fight- 
ing in  the  direction  of  Villenberg,  at  which  I  was  not 
present.  At  least  20,000  prisoners  were  brought  to 
the  rear,  together  with  a  number  of  horses,  guns  and 
waggons.  There  can  be  no  doubt  but  that  the  Ger- 
mans received  a  severe  defeat  on  these  two  days  and 
were  compelled  to  retire  a  great  distance  in  a  disor- 
ganized condition. 

During  these  two  days  enormous  reinforcements 
came  up  on  the  Russian  side,  including  four  cavalry 
divisions.  There  was  great  enthusiasm  in  our  ranks, 
because  news  came  to  hand  that  the  Russians  had  the 
Austrian  army  in  a  trap,  and  we  might  expect  to  hear 
of  great  things  before  the  week  had  run  out. 

On  the  29th  I  rode  with  the  5th  division  of  the 
Cossacks  of  the  Don,  and  by  midday  we  had  arrived 
in  front  of  Allenstein,  which  is  a  junction  of  five  or 
six  railway  lines  and  is  situated  about  70  English 
miles  from  Koenigsberg. 

The  people  flew  before  us  terror-stricken,  and  a 
regiment  of  German  hussars  was  destroyed.  I  am 
afraid  there  were  some  atrocities  on  the  part  of  the 
Cossacks.     Without  defending  them  I  must  remark 


fTHE  CAVALRY  FIGHTING  BEFORE  KOENIGSBERG     65 

that  the  Prussians  had  set  them  a  very  bad  example, 
and  they  were  not  slow  to  imitate  it.  Villages  were 
burnt  and  some  civilians  slain,  and  there  were  some 
other  lamentable  occurrences. 

A  German  brigade  of  heavy  cavalry  fell  back,  and 
the  railway-station  together  with  a  considerable  part 
of  the  town  of  Allenstein  were  destroyed,  partly  by 
fire,  partly  by  being  blown  up;  while  the  lines  were 
torn  up  in  every  direction;  but  this  does  not  mean 
that  the  destruction  was  as  great  as  it  would  be  under 
similar  circumstances  in  France  or  England,  for  the 
district  is  not  a  country  of  many  culverts  and  bridges. 
The  ground  is  marshy,  with  numerous  pools  and 
lakes  of  considerable  size,  which  afforded  good  shel- 
ter to  such  German  troops  as  were  seen,  and  enabled 
them  to  retire  without  much  loss;  in  fact  there  was 
scarcely  any  fighting  on  this  day,  and  it  became  evi- 
dent that  they  were  waiting  for  reinforcements  be- 
fore venturing  to  attack  the  overwhelming  mass  of 
Kussian  cavalry,  which  was  the  largest  body  of  horse- 
men I  have  ever  heard  of  as  acting  in  one  huge  corps. 
Probably  they  mustered  40,000  lances  and  sabres, 
and  they  covered  the  whole  dountry  on  a  front  of 
quite  100  versts,  extending  from  Allenstein  to  Gol- 
dapp  near  Suvalki. 

The  whole  of  this  region  is  a  swamp  with  a  cres- 
centic  line  of  lakes  and  ponds  —  a  difficult  country 
for  cavalry  to  act  in ;  but  the  Cossacks  crept  in  every- 
where, and  fire  and  lance  did  some  fell  work. 

In  some  places  there  was  fighting.  On  the  30th 
we  came  in  contact  with  a  division  of  Prussian  in- 


(86       AN  ENGLISHMAN  IN  THE  RUSSIAN  RANKS 

fantry  with  60  guns.  Our  men,  consisting  of  dis- 
mounted Cossacks,  dragoons  and  chasseurs,  with  30 
horse-artillery  and  machine  guns,  took  cover  amongst 
some  reeds  and  scattered  farm  buildings  and  inflicted 
some  loss  on  the  enemy,  who  did  not  make  a  stand 
but  soon  withdrew  behind  a  marshy  lake,  their  guns 
taking  a  made  road  where  they  offered  a  good  mark, 
so  that  a  couple  of  them  were  knocked  over,  horses 
and  all,  though  the  enemy  saved  them  under  cover 
of  darkness. 

At  night  the  railway-station  at  Bischofsburg  was 
destroyed  and  the  line  torn  up  for  a  distance  of  four 
versts  east  and  west  of  it;  and  we  learned  that  our 
patrols  had  demolished  the  stations  at  Sensburg,  Ras- 
tenburg,  Latzen  and  JSTordenburg,  and  had  pulled  up 
many  versts  of  the  line.  We  ourselves  blew  up  the 
station  at  Seeburg,  or  Seeburg  Road  as  it  might  be 
called,  for  the  town  is  situated  several  versts  from 
the  railway.  Altogether  we  seemed  to  be  having  a 
walk-over  in  this  region,  and  when  news  arrived  on 
the  2nd  September  that  the  Russians,  after  a  week's 
fighting,  had  crushed  the  Austrian  Army  and  occu- 
pied Lemberg,  the  excitement  and  joy  in  our  divi- 
sion were  such  as  I  never  before  thought  the  phleg- 
matic Muscovites  to  be  capable  of,  and  I  began  to 
entertain  the  belief  that  the  campaign  would  be  a 
short  one,  and  that  the  boast  of  the  Russians  that  we 
should  be  in  Berlin  in  two  or  three  weeks'  time  was 
no  vain  one. 

On  this  day  our  videttes  were  at  Friedland,  and 
we  learned  that  the   Prussians   had  come   out  of 


THE  CAVALRY  FIGHTING  BEFORE  KOENIGSBERG    67 

Koenigsburg  in  force,  and  that  there  had  been  severe 
fighting  ending  in  the  enemy  retiring  to  the  shelter 
of  their  forts.  The  Russian  commanders,  however, 
do  not  seem  to  have  thought  it  advisable  to  pursue 
the  foe  to  within  range  of  their  guns.  On  the  3rd 
.  we  approached  near  enough  to  be  able  to  see  two  of 
the  outlying  forts  of  the  great  stronghold.  Many 
parties  of  Germans  watched  the  dozen  troopers  com- 
posing our  advanced  guard;  but  there  was  no  ex- 
change of  shots.  We  satisfied  ourselves  that  certain 
dispositions  of  the  enemy  were  intended  as  a  lure  to 
attract  a  considerable  body  of  our  troops  within  de- 
structive range  of  their  concealed  parties.  We  smelt 
the  trap  and  declined  to  be  led  into  it,  but  one  of  our 
officers,  Lieutenant  Pitchchiff,  with  great  temerity 
rode  up  to  an  eminence  which  gave  him  a  great  com- 
mand of  view  and  was  less  than  200  yards  from  a 
company  of  the  enemy.  He  was  not  shot  at,  but  a 
number  of  mounted  men  rode  towards  him,  and  to 
avoid  being  taken  prisoner  he  had  to  come  away  at  a 
hand  gallop.  I  do  not  think  the  information  he 
gleaned  was  of  much  importance. 

The  officer  I  came  most  in  contact  with  was  Cap- 
tain Rudovka  of  the  16th  Dragoons,  but  acting  as 
intelligence  officer  to  the  commander  of  the  5th  divi- 
sion of  Cossacks.  His  bad  English  and  my  worse 
Trench  enabled  us  to  understand  one  another,  and 
his  duties,  carrying  him  as  they  did  over  a  great  deal 
of  ground,  made  him  a  very  desirable  companion. 
I  had  permission  also  to  keep  the  artilleryman  Chou- 
raski  with  me.     He  was  an  excellent  servant. 


68       AN  ENGLISHMAN  IN  THE  RUSSIAN  RANKS 

The  Russian  officer  is  usually  a  splendid  fellow; 
jovial,  polite,  generous  and  frank  in  a  high  degree. 
He  is  not  so  well  versed  in  the  history  and  theory  of 
his  profession  as  the  German  officer,  and  not  a  patch 
on  his  British  comrade,  who,  after  all  is  said  and 
done,  is  the  finest  officer  in  the  world.  As  to  pluck 
and  covirage,  there  is  not  an  appreciable  difference  in 
any  of  the  armies.  I  witnessed  some  magnificent  in- 
stances of  bravery  in  both  Germans  and  Russians; 
and  truth  to  tell,  acts  of  devilish  cruelty  in  both  na- 
tions —  acts  which  I  do  not  believe  it  is  possible 
either  French  or  British  officers  could  commit,  how- 
ever great  the  provocation. 

There  are  peculiarities  in  all  peoples;  and  one  of 
those  of  the  Russians  is  the  number  of  females  serv- 
ing in  their  ranks,  many  of  them  as  officers.  Indeed, 
I  heard  that  one  lady  commanded  a  regiment  of  Cos- 
sacks! This  seems  to  me  on  a  par  with  a  General 
nursing  a  baby !  But  I  never  was  "  a  lady's  man," 
so  perhaps  I  had  better  reserve  my  opinions.  All  I 
say  is  that  I  am  glad  the  lady  referred  to  was  not  the 
Colonel  of  any  regiment  under  the  wings  of  which  I 
fought ;  and  I  should  imagine  that  any  "  mere  male  " 
brought  before  a  court-martial  of  Amazons  would 
stand  more  danger  of  being  spanked  than  shot, 

I  saw  some  of  these  female  soldiers  —  quite  a 
score  in  all.  There  was  nothing  particularly  roman- 
tic in  the  appearance  of  any  of  them.  Most  of  them 
had  the  appearance  of  big,  lanky  raw-boned  boys; 
faces  oval,  features  "  puddeny,"  and  complexions 
pale.     One  girl,  said  to  be  only  eighteen  years  old, 


THE  CAVALRY  FIGHTING  BEFORE  KOENIGSBERG     69 

was  quite  six  feet  high,  with  limbs  that  would  fit  a 
grenadier.  I  noticed  that  all  those  I  saw  were  dark- 
haired  women.  They  are  said  to  have  been  enlisted 
as  men  and  to  have  remained  in  their  regiments  some 
'/  time  before  their  sex  was  discovered.  When  this 
V  event  took  place  the  woman  was  allowed  to  remain 
in  the  service.  I  was  a  little  curious  to  know  where 
these  ladies  lodged,  as  accommodation  is  always 
limited  enough  in  the  tented  field.  I  found  that,  in 
the  case  I  was  so  rude  as  to  pry  into,  the  girl  slept 
amongst  the  soldiers,  but  was  relegated  to  a  tent  oc- 
cupied exclusively  by  married  men.  My  admiration 
was  great.  The  wisdom  of  the  East  still  reigns  in 
Muscovite  brains.  Where  else  would  one  find  the 
wisdom  of  the  serpent  combined  with  the  harmless- 
ness  of  the  dove  but  in  a  tent  full  of  married  men 
unless,  indeed,  it  would  be  in  a  tent  full  of  married 
ladies  ? 

The  N'orthern  nations  are  not  prudish  in  the  matter 
of  housing  the  sexes  together.  Men  and  women  sleep 
promiscuously  in  one  compartment  in  their  cottage, 
farms,  etc. 

For  some  days  the  centre  of  fighting  was  in  Aus- 
trian Poland  and  Galicia,  of  which  we  could  see  noth- 
ing. There  was  also  a  powerful  advance  across  the 
German  frontier  in  the  direction  of  Breslau.  More 
weight  was  given  to  these  evolutions  than  they  de- 
served. For  a  time  the  Russian  attacks  were  irre- 
sistible, but  the  Germans  invariably  succeeded  in 
stemming  them.  The  reason  lies  in  a  nutshell.  The 
enormous  weight  of  millions  forced  the  enemy  back; 


70        AN  ENGLISHMAN  IN  THE  RUSSIAN  RANKS 

but  he  always  retired  slowly,  doggedly ;  and  when  he 
had  collected  a  sufficient  force  made  a  determined 
counter-attack  which  never  failed,  because  man  for 
man  the  German  is  by  far  the  better  fighter.  It  may 
be  unpleasant  to  many  to  hear  this;  but  it  is  true; 
and  no  man  is  more  sorry  than  I  am  that  it  is  so. 
The  German  is,  generally  speaking,  a  ferocious  brute, 
but  he  is  possessed  of  the  bestial  courage  of  a  tiger, 
and,  like  that  fierce  animal,  has  an  insatiable  taste 
for  blood.  To  say  that  the  German  Army  is  an  or- 
ganized band  of  criminals,  a  trained  body  of  thieves 
and  murderers,  may  seem  to  be  far-fetched  and  ex- 
aggerated to  some  persons ;  but  if  they  had  witnessed 
what  I  have  witnessed  they  would  not  say  so. 

Young  Polish  girls  were  forced  to  drink  until  they 
were  helplessly  drunk,  and  in  this  dreadful  condition 
were  outraged  to  death.  The  body  of  an  aged  female 
(no  doubt  a  matron)  was  found  hanging  from  a  tree 
by  the  feet,  disembowelled  and  trussed  as  a  hog,  with 
this  notice  pinned  to  her,  "  An  old  sow  left  to  be 
salted."  A  whole  company  of  Prussian  infantry 
abused  one  poor  woman  who  died  in  our  camp.  In 
one  village  about  150  men  and  male  children,  down 
to  the  age  of  nine  or  ten  years,  were  burned  alive. 
In  another  place,  a  small  hamlet  near  Shiplishki,  we 
heard  the  screams  of  burning  people,  and  afterwards 
saw  the  charred  remains  of  them.  These  are  not 
isolated  instances :  they  were  of  everyday  occurrence, 
but  I  do  not  dwell  on  them  for  fear  of  exciting  dis- 
gust. The  murder  and  mutilation  of  the  wounded 
was  invariable  when  the  enemy  had  time  to  effect  it, 


THE  CAVALRY  FIGHTING  BEFORE  KOENIGSBERG     71 

and  we  became  to  some  degree  hardened  to  such  com- 
monplace occurrences. 

On  the  other  hand,  the  Eussians  retaliated ;  and  I 
saj,  what  wonder  that  they  did  so  ?  I  believe  in  re- 
taliation. It  is  a  powerful  weapon  to  fight  with. 
It  frightened  the  Germans  and  afterwards,  to  a  very 
marked  extent,  put  a  check  on  their  atrocities.  I 
stood  bj  and  saw  10  officers  and  100  soldiers  hanged; 
and  as  I  did  so  I  remembered  that  the  first  murders 
I  witnessed  in  this  horrible  war  were  those  of  Rus- 
sian subjects  by  the  Germans  at  Kalisz;  and  if  by 
holding  up  a  thumb  I  could  have  saved  the  life  of 
any  one  of  these  110  scoundrels,  I  would  not  have 
lifted  it.  These  were  all  clearly  guilty  of  murder, 
wounding,  torturing,  female  abusing,  and  plunder- 
ing. Still  I  must  say,  with  regard  to  the  Cossacks  — 
they  are  terrible  fellows. 

I  have  mentioned  as  a  peculiarity  of  the  Russian 
forces  the  number  of  women  found  in  their  ranks  and 
welcomed  there.  The  great  peculiarities  of  the  Ger- 
man Army,  apart  from  its  fiendish  brutality,  are  the 
prevalence  of  suicide  and  insanity  in  it.  Some 
/months  later  than  the  time  I  am  writing  of,  a  cap- 
tured German  officer,  a  Lieutenant,  I  believe,  of  a 
Landwehr  regiment,  told  me  that  down  to  the  end 
of  February,  1915,  at  least  a  thousand  men  had  de- 
stroyed themselves ;  and  he  mentioned  it  as  a  curious 
fact  that  hardly  any  of  these  miserable  creatures  be- 
longed to  the  artillery  branch  of  the  service.  The 
reasons  for  destroying  themselves  were  rarely  left  be- 
hind  by   the   victims   of   this   terrible   infatuation. 


72       AN  ENGLISHMAN  IN  THE  RUSSIAN  RANKS 

Some  of  our  prisoners  destroyed  themselves;  and  I 
saw  one  man  shoot  himself  on  the  battlefield.  But 
in  this  latter  instance  horror  at  the  sights  around  him 
was  the  probable  cause  of  the  deed. 

Insanity  is  even  more  frequent  amongst  German 
soldiers  than  suicide.  At  the  battle  of  Darkehmen 
a  man,  quite  naked,  foaming  and  gesticulating  wildly, 
rushed  towards  us.  The  astonishment  this  excited 
caused  a  lull  of  the  firing  at  the  spot,  and  he  dashed 
along  for  500  yards  at  a  tremendous  speed,  leaping 
and  springing  like  a  stag.  He  made  straight  for  our 
ranks,  where  he  was  knocked  down  by  a  soldier  and 
secured.  He  bit  very  badly  several  of  his  captors 
before  being  carried  to  the  rear.  I  do  not  know  what 
became  of  him;  but  hundreds  of  our  prisoners  were 
raving  when  captured. 


CHAPTER  VII 

THE    FIEST    INVASION    OF    EAST    PRUSSIA,    AND 
THE    EETEEAT 

By  the  4th  or  5th  September  it  was  pretty  generally 
known,  in  that  part  of  the  Russian  Army  where  I 
■was,  that  something  was  going  wrong  with  us.  Great 
masses  of  infantry  and  artillery  were  formed  east- 
ward, behind,  and  on  the  right  flank  of  the  cavalry ; 
and  yet  we  made  no  further  advance  or  progress  in 
any  direction.  Some  thought  that  our  commanders 
were  afraid  of  the  garrison  of  the  Koenigsberg  forts, 
which  was  believed  to  number  150,000  men.  I,  and 
others  engaged  on  outpost  and  scouting  work,  knew 
that  German  reinforcements  were  coming  up  rapidly, 
and  that  a  large  army  was  collecting  on  the  Vistula 
between  Marienburg  and  Thorn.  These  reinforce- 
ments, we  knew,  were  coming  from  Belgium  and  the 
Western  theatre  of  war,  and  also  from  the  interior 
of  Germany. 

On  our  side  reinforcements  were  coming  up  in 
great  numbers ;  but  at  this  period  the  chief  fighting 
was  on  the  Austrian-Russian  frontier ;  and  daily,  and 
often  almost  hourly,  news  came  to  hand  of  the  great 
victories  which  were  being  gained.  It  was  asserted 
that  in  one  day  as  many  as  130,000  Austrian  and 
Prussian  prisoners  were  taken.  The  truth  of  these 
reports  I  had  no  means  of  ascertaining:  nor  of  the 

73 


74        AN  ENGLISHMAN  IN  THE  RUSSIAN  RANKS 

many  other  rumours  of  tlie  crushing  victories  of  the 
Allies  in  the  West,  where  the  Germans  were  said  to 
be  retreating  on  all  parts,  and  in  many  places,  in  dis- 
orderly rout.  ]!^ow,  eight  months  later,  are  they  re- 
treating at  any  point  ?  Evidently  mistakes  were 
made;  and  it  was  not  realized  that  the  enemy  was 
preparing  a  ring  of  defences  which  it  would  take 
many  months  to  force.  It  was  also  said  that  the  Ger- 
mans were  beginning  to  run  short  of  ammunition. 
We  soon  had  painful  evidence  that  the  Germans  were 
short  of  nothing. 

On  the  evening  of  the  5th  September,  they  trapped 
one  of  our  cavalry  regiments  and  destroyed  it,  to- 
gether with  the  greater  part  of  a  squadron  of  dra- 
goons. Many  of  the  men,  including  all  the  wounded, 
were  taken  prisoners. 

On  the  6th  the  enemy  began  to  advance  in  force. 
The  fighting  consisted  mostly  of  artillery  duels  at 
long  ranges.  While  we  were  watching  the  action  of 
some  guns  posted  about  two  English  miles  away,  a 
shell  smashed  to  atoms  the  head  and  shoulders  of  an 
officer  in  the  midst  of  our  group,  and  we  were  splashed 
all  over  with  his  blood  and  brains  —  not  a  pleasant 
experience.  The  man  must  have  been  killed  in- 
stantly, yet  his  hands  and  feet  continued  to  twitch 
for  some  minutes  after  he  was  struck.  It  is  remark- 
able that  only  one  man  was  hurt,  as  we  were  stand- 
ing close  together  under  some  trees,  where  we  felt 
sure  we  were  quite  safe. 

On  the  same  day  we  began  to  retire,  but  slowly, 
and  vsdth  much  stubborn  fighting.     Nearly  all  the 


THE  FIRST  INVASION  OF  EAST  PRUSSIA         75 

cavalry  was  drawn  back  from  the  front,  and  much  of 
it  must  have  been  sent  right  away,  as  I  never  saw  it 
again.  The  5th  Cossack  division,  however,  re- 
mained ;  and  for  a  long  time  was  engaged  in  covering 
a  portion  of  the  11th  Army  Corps. 

On  the  7th  the  artillery  fight  continued  without 
apparently  decisive  results  on  either  side,  though  our 
retreat  continued,  as  it  did  on  the  8th  when  the  bulk 
of  the  Cossacks  (about  1,500  men)  were  at  Deutsch 
Eylau,  with  orders  to  fall  back  on  Soldau,  a  town 
seventy  or  eighty  versts  east  of  Thorn.  There  fol- 
lowed a  number  of  movements  which  I  did  not  under- 
stand, and  about  which  I  could  glean  no  information. 
My  difficulties  were  so  great  that  it  was  not  until  this 
day  that  I  learned  we  were  under  the  direct  com- 
mand of  General  Rennenkampf,  whom  I  had  only 
seen  on  one  occasion,  and  then  had  scarcely  more 
than  a  glimpse  of  him. 

The  little  I  learned  with  certainty  showed  that  the 
Russians  were  obtaining  great  and  important  vic- 
tories over  the  Austrians,  with  whom  were  combined 
a  considerable  force  of  Germans,  and  that  the  Prus- 
sians were  becoming  exceedingly  nervous  about  their 
progress.  In  consequence,  they  withdrew  a  great 
many  units  from  our  front;  and  the  Russians,  too, 
sent  a  great  force  to  the  south,  including,  I  suspect, 
most  of  the  cavalry  that  had  suddenly  departed. 
Both  sides,  also,  but  the  Germans  principally,  began 
to  form  extensive  systems  of  entrenchments ;  and  two 
new  devices  came  into  use  in  modern  warfare  —  viz., 
band-gTenades  and  armour  breastplates. 


76       AN  ENGLISHMAN  IN  THE  RUSSIAN  RANKS 

The  grenades  were  peculiar  things,  not  at  all  re- 
sembling the  weapons  which  gave  our  Grenadiers 
their  name;  of  a  kind  of  elongated  pear-shape,  these 
were  iron  cases  divided  into  segments,  and  attached 
to  a  stick  which  fitted  the  barrel  of  a  rifle  and  en- 
abled them  to  be  shot,  at  an  acute  angle,  into  trenches. 
They  were,  also,  thrown  by  hand,  and  were  nasty 
viperish  things,  often  doing  a  great  deal  of  damage. 

The  shields  were  a  kind  of  iron  breastplate, 
roughly  made,  and  held  in  the  hand  by  means  of 
metal  handles;  so  that  the  men  had  to  drop  them 
when  they  fired  their  rifles,  or  used  their  bayonets: 
but  afterwards  they  were  attached  to  the  body  by 
means  of  straps.  Except  at  short  range  they  were 
bullet-proof.  The  method  of  use  was  for  the  front 
rank  in  a  mass  of  close  columns  to  hold  them  up,  pro- 
tecting themselves  and  comrades  until  they  closed 
with  the  foe,  when  they  were  thrown  down  that  their 
bearers  might  use  the  bayonet.  Hundreds  of  them 
were  taken  by  the  Russians ;  but  the  contrivance  was 
too  clumsy,  and  was  soon  abandoned  by  both  sides. 
Before  the  men  could  drop  them  and  unsling  their 
rifles  they  were  heaps  of  corpses.  The  grenades, 
however,  held  their  own,  and  were  much  used  in 
trench  warfare. 

There  was  frequent  and  much  rain  at  this  time; 
which  was  a  great  inconvenience,  and  caused  the 
ground  to  become  in  a  very  bad  state  for  the  passage 
of  cavalry  and  artillery,  not  to  mention  the  misery  of 
bivouacking  in  drenching  showers.  The  weather 
was  often  very  hot ;  but  there  was  a  singular  absence 


THE  FIRST  INVASION  OF  EAST  PRUSSIA         77 

of  disease  amongst  our  troops,  though  one  got  to  know 
that  typhus  and  other  fevers  were  appearing  amongst 
the  enemy's  troops,  though  not  spreading  to  any  ex- 
tent ;  and  probably  no  campaign  on  a  large  scale  was 
ever  conducted  with  less  loss  to  the  troops  from  dis- 
ease. 

Much  of  the  scene  of  the  operations  I  have  been 
describing  was  very  beautiful  country,  studded  with 
homesteads  and  farms  that,  in  normal  times,  must 
have  been  quiet  and  peaceful  places,  occupied  by 
well-to-do  yeomanry  and  peasantry,  living  happy  and 
contented  lives.  Orchards  were  numerous,  but  the 
fruit  had  entirely  disappeared,  either  prematurely  re- 
moved by  its  owners  to  make  what  they  could  of  it, 
or  plundered  by  the  passing  troops.  Frequently  we 
rode  by  cornfields  that  had  been  burned ;  and  potato- 
fields  had  been  dug  up  and  wasted,  thousands  of  po- 
tatoes the  size  of  marbles  lying  on  the  ground.  Our 
raiders  got  hold  of  many  fowls  and  pigs ;  and  for  a 
week  or  two  pork  was  always  to  be  had  at  two  or  three 
meals  per  day. 

Most  of  the  people  had  fled  from  this  country; 
those  that  remained  seemed  to  fear  their  own  coun- 
trymen as  much  as  they  did  our  Cossacks,  and  re- 
mained in  hiding  while  we  were  passing.  Generally 
speaking  they  were  not  ill-used  when  our  men  dis- 
covered them;  but  scant  respect  was  shown  to  the 
rights  of  womanhood  by  the  Germans  themselves,  who 
had  become  brutal.  ISTo  doubt  many  of  the  German 
officers  made  great  efforts  to  maintain  order ;  but  the 
license  of  war  is  notorious,  and  many  opportunities 


78        AN  ENGLISHMAN  IN  THE  RUSSIAN  RANKS 

for  wrong-doing  must  necessarily  arise  in  countries 
under  its  influence. 

Houses  and  whole  villages  were  wrecked  and 
burned.  We  were  constantly  passing  through  smoul- 
dering ruins,  and  at  night  the  land  resembled  our 
"  Black  Country  "  for  blazing  fires,  and  reflections  of 
fires.  We  saw  bodies  of  civilians  who  appeared  to 
have  been  executed  by  shooting;  and  in  one  wrecked 
and  smoke-blackened  street,  a  couple  of  our  own  Cos- 
sacks, and  another  Russian  soldier,  were  seen  hang- 
ing to  lamp-posts  —  probably  marauders  who  had 
wandered  away  from  their  ranks,  and  fallen  amongst 
the  Philistines  —  a  fate  such  people  often  meet. 

Acting  on  orders,  the  cavalry  spread  out  into  a 
vast  screen,  covering  the  movements  of  the  infantry, 
and  gradually  fell  back  before  the  enemy.  The 
movement  was  described  as  being  strategical,  for  the 
purpose  of  dratving  the  Germans  into  a  favourable 
position  for  attack;  but  this  assertion  was  probably 
made  to  keep  up  the  spirits  of  our  troops. 

The  enemy  fired  at  us  a  good  deal;  but  as  they 
could  not  bring  their  guns  to  bear  on  a  group  of  men, 
very  little  execution  was  done.  There  were  some 
charges  between  small  parties,  always  much  less  than 
a  squadron  in  strength:  and  in  all  these  that  I  saw 
or  heard  of  the  Germans  got  the  worst  of  the  fight; 
and  besides  those  cut  down,  in  three  or  four  days, 
our  men  captured  more  than  200  prisoners,  half  a 
dozen  of  whom  were  officers.  I  believe  that  the  Ger- 
mans claimed  to  have  captured  some  of  our  soldiers, 
but  I  much  doubt  if  they  secured  as  many  as  a  score. 


THE  FIRST  INVASION  OF  EAST  PRUSSIA         79 

The  Cossack  has  a  strong  disinclination  to  be  taken 
prisoner;  and  I  knew  of  several  of  them  sacrificing 
their  lives  rather  than  fall  into  the  hands  of  the  Ger- 
mans, who  heartily  detest  these  men,  and  usually 
murdered  such  as  they  succeeded  in  catching  —  and 
murdered  them  after  preliminary  tortures,  according 
to  reports  which  reached  us.  The  country  people 
certainly  showed  no  mercy  to  stragglers  falling  into 
their  hands.  They  usually  pitch-forked  them  to 
death;  and  this  lethal  weapon  was  a  favourite  with, 
the  ladies  on  both  sides  of  the  border,  many  a  fine 
Teuton  meeting  his  end  by  thrusts  from  this  imple- 
ment. For  in  some  of  the  fights  the  peasantry,  in- 
cluding women  of  all  ages,  took  part,  and  showed 
that  farm  instruments  are  as  deadly  as  any  kind  of 
"  arme  blanche."  ("Arme  blanche"  is  the  term 
used  by  military  scientists  to  include  bayonets,  lances 
and  swords  of  all  descriptions.  Perhaps  the  nearest 
English  equivalent  is  "cold  steel.") 

Riding  through  a  burnt  village  near  l^eidenburg, 
half  a  sotnia  of  our  fellows  fell  into  a  Prussian  trap 
and  had  a  third  of  their  saddles  emptied  in  a  few 
seconds.  The  survivors  were  equal  to  the  occasion; 
and  charged  so  vigorously  that  they  completely  routed 
their  opponents  —  about  100  of  a  reservist  corps  with 
the  figures  239  on  their  shoulder-straps.^  Two  of 
these  men  were  impaled  on  the  same  Cossack  lance, 
an   almost   incredible   circumstance.     The    Cossacks 

1 239  Reserve  are  said  to  have  been  in  Flanders.  There 
may  be  various  explanations;  but  it  is  certain  that  this  small 
party  of  men  wore  the  number  239. 


80        AN  ENGLISHMAN  IN  THE  RUSSIAN  RANKS 

are  in  the  habit  of  lowering  their  lances  as  they  charge 
without  removing  them  from  the  buckets.  Holdii\g 
them  loosely  by  the  lanyards  they  kick  them  into 
their  enemies  with  such  irresistible  force,  aided  by 
the  speed  of  the  charging  horse,  that  to  parry  the 
weapons  is  impossible.  In  the  case  mentioned,  the 
men  must  have  been  standing  one  close  behind  the 
other,  and  the  lance  was  driven  right  through  bodies, 
packs  and  all.  It  was  some  time  before  one  of  the 
men  died:  in  fact,  not  before  the  Cossack  drew  his 
sword  and  finished  him  off  by  a  sabre  cut.  The  sol- 
dier could  not  withdraw  his  lance,  so  firmly  was  it 
embedded  in  the  bodies,  a  circumstance  which  much 
aroused  his  ire,  for  all  Cossacks  are  much  attached 
to  their  weapons. 

Having  crossed  the  border,  we  fell  back  in  the  di- 
rection of  Przasnysz,  hearing  that  Soldau  was  evacu- 
ated; but  I  did  not  myself  enter  that  town.  We 
found  that  a  long  line  of  trenches  had  been  made 
stretching  towards  Lomza  and  said  to  be  extended 
quite  up  to  that  place.  The  lines  were  full  of  in- 
fantry; and  redoubts  were  constructed  at  intervals 
in  which  heavy  siege  artillery  was  placed;  an  en- 
couraging sight,  as  it  seemed  certain  that  these  de- 
fences must  effectually  check  the  Germans. 

We  were  not  long  left  to  ponder  over  the  possible 
effects  of  an  assault  on  our  position.  On  the  14th 
the  Germans  opened  fire  with  their  field-guns,  and 
at  daybreak  made  a  violent  assault  in  their  usual 
close  formation.  The  result  was  horrible.  Whole 
sections  of  them  were  blown  away,  the  air  being  filled 


THE  FIRST  INVASION  OF  EAST  PRUSSIA        81 

with  showers  of  human  fragments,  dismembered  by 
the  big  shells  from  the  siege  guns.  At  the  same  time 
they  were  subjected  to  a  withering  rifle  fire  and  they 
soon  broke  and  fled,  suffering  terribly  as  they  rushed 
madly  away. 

Perhaps  the  heavy  guns  were  a  surprise  to  them. 
They  generally  made  repeated  assaults,  often  as 
many  as  seven  or  eight  in  quick  succession;  but  on 
this  occasion  they  were  fairly  frightened:  they  even 
suspended  their  artillery  shooting  until  late  in  the 
afternoon,  and  made  no  demonstration  against  the 
parties  which  went  out  from  our  lines  to  examine 
the  battle-field. 

Of  all  the  awful  sights  I  had  seen,  or  saw  after- 
wards, none  exceeded  this.  The  enemy  could  not 
reach  the  guns,  on  account  of  the  skilful  way  in  which 
they  were  placed  well  in  the  rear,  and  protected  by 
strong  cross-fire;  but  they  had  succeeded  by  super- 
human bravery  in  forcing  the  first  line  trenches. 
They  held  none  of  their  gains  longer  than  five  min- 
utes, at  most;  but  in  that  time  lost  so  heavily  that 
the  pits  were  filled  with  corpses  flush  with  the 
ground  outside  of  them.  In  some  spots  the  dead  and 
the  dying  were  lying  in  heaps  eight  or  nine  deep. 
The  shells  which  had  been  used  appeared  to  weigh 
from  150  to  200  pounds  (English  weight)  each;  and 
hundreds  of  bodies  were  rent  to  pieces.  Arms, 
heads,  legs,  entrails,  pieces  of  flesh,  were  lying  about 
in  all  directions;  and  the  proportion  of  dead  to  in- 
jured was  very  high  —  more  so,  I  think,  than  in  any 
other  action  that  had  taken  place,  though  in  some  in- 


S2        AN  ENGLISHMAN  IN  THE  RUSSIAN  RANKS 

stances  nearly  all  the  casualties  were  caused  by  artil- 
lery fire. 

We  brought  in  about  7,000  wounded ;  and  I  calcu- 
lated that  at  least  12,000  dead  were  left  lying  on  the 
field.  The  Germans  sent  a  flag  of  truce  asking  for 
permission  to  bury  their  dead.  A  reply  was  sent 
that  we  would  do  that  job  for  them.  But  no  attempt 
was  made  to  bury  the  enemy's  dead  until  the  16th. 
There  was  rain  in  the  interval,  followed  by  a  hot 
morning :  not  more  than  half  the  bodies  were  disposed 
of  until  the  17th,  and  by  that  time  the  stench  from 
the  field  was  sickening. 

During  this  interval  there  was  no  firing  worth  men- 
tioning. The  Germans  were  slyly  waiting  for  their 
heavy  guns  to  come  up.  However,  on  the  night  of 
the  17th  they  made  an  attempt  to  surprise  us,  but 
went  home  with  a  flea  in  their  ear,  leaving  another 
1,000  men  behind  them.  At  this  time  so  many  men 
had  been  withdrawn  to  the  Austrian  front,  that,  imi- 
tating the  example  of  the  British  and  French  in  the 
West,  our  cavalry  were  dismounted  and  fighting  in 
the  trenches.  So  I  had  full  opportunity  of  seeing 
what  was  going  on  and  taking  a  part  in  the  opera- 
tions. Often  I  wished  that  I  could  move  about  even 
more  freely  than  I  contrived  to  do.  For  the  sounds 
of  heavy  firing  miles  away  showed  that  our  little  ham- 
let was  not  the  only  centre  of  a  fierce  fight.  The 
name  of  this  hamlet,  situated  about  twenty  versts  to 
the  east  of  Przasnysz,  by-the-by  I  never  heard.  It 
had  endured  the  horror  of  a  visit  from  the  Germans, 
and  was  a  heap  of  blackened  ruins.     It  had  occupied 


THE  FIRST  INVASION  OF  EAST  PRUSSIA         83 

a  slight  eminence,  and  a  battery  was  now  placed  in 
front  of  it.  Further  back  were  some  gravel-pits  and 
a  scarped  bank,  where  the  Cossacks  picketed  their 
horses,  and  a  reserve  of  ammunition  was  kept, 
though  it  was  not  altogether  safe  from  the  enemy's 
shells. 

All  through  the  18th  there  was  very  heavy  artillery 
firing,  in  which  the  Germans  got  much  the  worst  of 
it,  as  their  guns  were  light;  but  on  the  19th  they 
had  some  heavy  pieces  in  position  which  did  us  some 
damage,  blowing  in  many  yards  of  trenches,  and  de- 
stroying hundreds  of  men.  "We  had,  however,  no 
experience  of  the  terrible  "  Jack  Johnsons,"  nor  had 
we,  so  far,  heard  of  those  monstrous  pieces  of  artil- 
lerv. 

General  Jowmetstri,  our  immediate  commander, 
did  not  care  to  sit  still  and  endure  this  galling  fire, 
which  our  guns  were  unable  to  subdue;  and  on  the 
evening  of  the  20th  he  ordered  a  general  advance 
with  the  bayonet.  The  Germans  did  not  seem  to  be 
prepared  for  this,  if  they  were  not  actually  taken  by 
surprise.  Our  charge  was  a  very  fierce  one  and  the 
enemy  was  driven  out  of  his  trenches,  and  a  large 
working-party  which  was  busy  cutting  parallel  lines 
of  defence  was  annihilated.  The  enemy's  troops  at 
this  point  were  evidently  of  inferior  quality.  Many 
of  them  threw  down  their  arms,  and  some  begged 
piteously  for  mercy.  Their  officers  were  furious, 
and  cut  and  stabbed  at  their  soldiers,  as  well  as  fired 
their  revolvers  at  them.  I  saw  one  fellow  throw 
his  arms  round  his  officer  and  literally  howl  for 


84        AN  ENGLISHMAN  IN  THE  RUSSIAN  RANKS 

mercy,  while  the  man  of  authority  swore  and  strug- 
gled to  free  his  sword  arm.  Both  men  were  taken 
prisoners.  The  whole  force  was  swept  from  its  de- 
fences and  compelled  to  retreat,  closely  followed  by 
our  men.     A  sharp  rifle-fire  was  kept  up  all  night. 

About  ten  o'clock  in  the  morning  the  enemy  joined 
a  fresh  force,  and  we  were  compelled  to  halt.  We 
could  hear  that  very  heavy  fighting  was  taking  place 
to  the  right  of  our  position,  some  of  the  sounds  of 
artillery  firing  being  distant,  in  the  opinion  of  ex- 
perienced soldiers,  at  least  thirty  versts;  and  the 
front  of  the  battle  must  have  extended  a  much  greater 
distance  than  that. 

I  was  much  perturbed  about  my  horse,  and  those 
of  the  Cossacks  with  me,  numbering  about  fifty  men, 
all  that  was  left  of  the  sotnia  (or  squadron).  I  had 
not  seen  Kudovka  for  three  days ;  and,  in  fact,  never 
saw  him  again,  nor  did  I  meet  with  anybody  of  whom 
I  could  make  inquiries  concerning  hiuL  Chouraski 
was  still  with  me;  but  communication  between  us 
was  chiefly  by  means  of  signs,  though  I  was  begin- 
ning to  pick  up  the  names  of  a  few  things  in  Kussian ; 
and  Chouraski  knew  what  I  meant  when  I  asked  for 
"bread"  (biscuit),  "cheese,"  "water,"  "wash," 
"  dress,"  etc. 

Some  of  the  articles  indicated  by  these  words  were 
very  different  from  what  an  Englishman  would  ex- 
pect them  to  be.  Bread  was  a  species  of  "  hard 
tack "  compared  with  which  dog-biscuits  are  fancy 
food:  cheese  was  a  wretched  soft  mess  resembling 
"wet  putty,  sour  and  peculiarly  flavoured.     Meat  was 


THE  FIRST  INVASION  OF  EAST  PRUSSIA         85 

plentiful   and  good,    especially   German  pork,    and 
fowls,  many  of  which  were  large  and  fleshy. 

The  fifty  Cossacks  had  no  officer  left  and  only  one 
corporal,  and  they  looked  to  me  for  guidance.  As- 
sisted by  Chouraski  I  contrived  to  lead  them  very  well 
for  five  days,  when  they  were  taken  charge  of  by  a 
Staff  Officer,  and,  I  suppose,  sent  back  to  their  regi- 
ment. Whether  they  regained  their  horses,  or  what 
became  of  mine,  I  never  heard.  I  say  "  mine  " ;  but 
really  I  do  not  know  to  whom  the  animal,  or  the  one 
previously  killed  under  me,  belonged.  Both  had 
been  found  for  me,  no  explanations  being  asked  for 
or  given.  I  was  lost  without  a  horse,  but  had  no 
money  to  buy  one.  At  this  time  all  the  cash  in  my 
possession  was  £20  in  English  sovereigns,  and  I  had 
nobody  to  whom  I  could  apply  for  more.  I  wrote 
several  letters  to  friends  at  home;  but  none  of  these 
reached  their  destination;  nor  did  I  receive  a  line 
from  anyone  during  the  whole  time  I  was  with  the 
Kussian  Army. 

Campaigning  is  rough  work.  I  had  come  into  the 
country  with  a  small  gladstone  bag  only ;  and  now  I 
wanted  many  things  badly,  including  boots  in  par- 
ticular. But  just  now  I  had  fighting  to  attend  to, 
and  that  under  strange  circumstances  because,  like 
George  Washington,  I  seem  to  suffer  from  a  natural 
inability  to  become  a  linguist.  Most  of  the  Russian 
officers  are  good  French  scholars;  and  I  found  the 
most  facile  way  of  communicating  with  them  was  to 
pencil  down  in  French  what  I  wished  to  say.  "  How 
was   I   to   get   a   horse  ? "     "  Take   one   from   the 


86        AN  ENGLISHMAN  IN  THE  RUSSIAN  RANKS 

Deiitsclimann/'  came  the  ready  reply.  I  resolved  1 
would  if  I  could.  Boots  and  shirts  were  another 
matter,  and  these  were  generously  given  me,  together 
with  an  officer's  uniform  of  the  80th  regiment. 

The  swaying  backwards  and  forwards  of  the  battle, 
so  to  speak,  seemed  to  be  occasioned  by  the  necessity 
the  Germans  were  under  to  rush  their  troops  about 
to  save  the  many  threatened  positions.  They  strove, 
often  with  success,  to  pin  the  Russian  troops  to  one 
spot  while  they  sent  reinforcements  to  help  their 
friends  the  Austrians.  Their  Allies  set  right,  back 
came  the  relieving  force,  and  a  fresh  attack  was  made 
on  the  Russians,  too  often  with  success,  or  partial  suc- 
cess. I  have  already  repeatedly  said  that  it  was  their 
splendid  system  of  railways  that  enabled  the  Germans 
to  effect  these  rapid  and  confusing  movements. 

That  the  railways  were  the  means  by  which  they 
obtained  their  victories  was  proved  by  a  curious  fact. 
When  the  Russians  were  beaten  back  so  far  that  the 
Germans  could  not  command  their  railed  lines  of  com- 
munication, and  were  thus  placed  on  an  equality  with 
the  Russians,  they  began  to  lose  ground,  and  Rus- 
sians to  gain  it.  This  accounts  for  the  "  swaying 
backwards  and  forwards  "  of  the  contending  forces 
to  which  I  have  several  times  alluded. 

In  the  present  fight,  however,  I  think  they  had  a 
narrow  escape  of  a  serious  disaster,  and  I  was  disap- 
pointed that  the  Russians  did  not  evince  more  dash 
and  push  their  enemies  back  on  Berlin.  They  proved 
to  be  not  strong  enough  to  do  this ;  nor  do  I  think  they 
will  succeed  in  so  doing,  until  the  British  and  French 


THE  FIRST  INVASION  OF  EAST  PRUSSIA         87 

make  a  decided  turn  in  the  Western  campaign.  It 
is  in  the  West  that  the  fate  of  the  German  Empire 
will  be  decided. 

Germany  too  is  full  of  strong  fortresses;  and  the 
Russians  have  been  unable  to  threaten  seriously  any 
of  thesa,  and  are,  I  feel  sure,  incapable  of  taking  any 
of  them.  They  lack  the  necessary  artillery,  for  one 
thing ;  and  I  was  never  greatly  impressed  by  the  en- 
gineering skill  of  their  sappers.  The  Germans  are 
masters  in  this  branch  of  the  service;  and  that  is  a 
circumstance  which  is  sure  to  tell  both  in  field-works 
and  in  fortress  warfare. 

That  there  was  much  anxiety  amongst  the  com- 
manders of  both  armies  at  the  end  of  September  was 
betrayed  by  the  movements  of  the  troops,  and  the 
disinclination  which  was  shown  by  both  Russians  and 
Germans  to  take  a  bold  initiative  before  the  arrival 
of  strong  reinforcements.  There  was  firing  every 
day,  it  is  true,  and  sometimes  heavy  firing;  but  no 
attempts  at  those  vigorous  attacks  in  masses  of  col- 
umns which  were  so  expensive  in  life ;  and,  I  might 
add,  so  ineffectual  that  it  is  amazing  the  Germans 
'  persisted  in  making  them. 

Attempts  may  have  been  made  to  conceal  the  ar- 
rival of  reinforcements :  they  were  not  successful. 
We  learned  of  every  battery  and  battalion  that  ar- 
rived in  the  German  line:  and  their  prisoners,  of 
whom  we  daily  captured  hundreds,  could  tell  us  all 
about  the  fresh  arrivals  in  our  camp.  Something 
was  learned  through  scouts  and  patrols;  but  there 
must  have  been  numerous  spies  in  both  camps.     None 


88        AN  ENGLISHMAN  IN  THE  RUSSIAN  RANKS 

of  them  were  discovered  to  my  knowledge;  but  the 
Germans  were  continually  hanging  or  shooting  sus- 
pected persons.  The  slightest  suspicion  of  a  stranger 
in  their  lines  was  sufficient  to  insure  his  destruction. 
They  shot  first  and  inquired  afterwards,  if  they  in- 
quired at  all. 

Almost  simultaneously  it  was  announced  in  our 
camp  that  the  Czar  was  coming  to  command  us  in 
person,  and  the  Kaiser  to  place  himself  at  the  head 
of  the  enemy.  The  Germans  were  evidently  most 
anxious  to  drive  back  our  armies,  in  order  to  have 
the  greater  part  of  their  force  at  liberty  to  deal  with 
the  French  and  British  in  the  West :  their  prisoners 
admitted  this,  and  were  not  at  all  reticent  concerning 
details,  often  giving  information  which  showed  them 
to  be  little  better  than  traitors  to  their  country.  The 
Saxons,  particularly,  were  communicative,  and  many 
of  them  openly  expressed  their  disgust  at  the  war 
and  the  cruelties  perpetrated  by  the  Prussians,  who, 
with  the  Bavarians  and  Wiirtembergers,  were  un- 
doubtedly the  cruellest  men  amongst  our  foes,  as  they 
are  the  most  brutal  amongst  themselves.  The  roughs 
from  Wurzburg,  Frankfort-on-the-Rhine,  Berlin,  and 
Hanover,  were  notorious  for  wickedness,  even  in  their 
own  ranks ;  and  prisoners  from  the  other  States  would 
often  refuse  to  associate  with  them. 

I  moved  about  very  freely  amongst  the  German 
prisoners  at  the  request  of  several  of  the  Russian 
commanders,  for  the  purpose  of  gleaning  information. 
While  at  least  40  or  50  per  cent,  of  the  German  offi- 
cers could  speak  French  and  English  fluently,  hardly 


THE  FIRST  INVASION  OF  EAST  PRUSSIA         89 

any  of  the  Russians  had  a  knowledge  of  the  latter  lan- 
guage, though  they  were  nearly  always  good  Trench 
scholars.  On  the  other  hand,  German  officers  rarely 
understand  Russian.  The  German  rank  and  file  con- 
tained hundreds  of  men  who  spoke  English  almost 
like  natives  of  Britain ;  and  no  big  batch  of  prisoners 
came  under  my  notice  which  did  not  contain  men 
who  had  resided  in  our  Islands.  Their  officers  were 
more  reticent  than  the  men ;  hence  the  use  I  could  be 
to  the  Russian  authorities ;  and  though  spying  is  not 
to  my  taste,  I  acted  willingly  enough  on  these  occa- 
sions for  what,  I  hope,  are  very  obvious  reasons.  I 
have  been  told  by  some  pious  people  that  the  meaning 
of  the  present  universal  imbroglio  is  that  the  end  of 
the  world  is  imminent.  I  am  convinced  that  it  would 
soon  be  so  if  the  vrretched  Tyrant  of  Prussia  won  the 
day :  and  to  prevent  such  a  catastrophe  I  would  will- 
ingly stoop  to  meaner  work  than  spying. 

Sometimes  the  prisoners  mistook  me  for  a  Ger- 
man; and  I  did  not  always  undeceive  them.  Many 
of  them  were  miserably  ignorant  creatures;  and  I 
formed  the  opinion  that  State  interference  with  the 
education  of  either  the  Classes  or  the  Masses  is  not 
such  a  benefit  to  the  people  of  a  country  as  many 
meddlesome  faddists  would  like  us  to  believe.  Prob- 
ably there  are  very  few  Germans  who  cannot  read 
and  write;  but  these  are  qualifications  which  may 
be  much  perverted  if  they  are  not  "  founded  upon  a 
rock." 

A  great  many  of  the  prisoners  taken  by  the  Rus- 
sians were  men  who  would  better  be  described  as 


90        AN  ENGLISHMAN  IN  THE  RUSSIAN  RANKS 

deserters  than  prisoners.  Lots  of  them  hated  the 
military  service,  and  had  taken  the  earliest  oppor- 
tunity to  run  away  from  it  —  into  the  arms  of  their 
enemies.  "  I  have  a  wife  and  six  children  in  Magde- 
burg. If  I'm  killed  who  will  look  after  them  ?  " 
said  one  man.  Another  fellow  remarked :  "  I  was 
married  about  three  months  before  I  was  called  to  the 
colours.  I  don't  want  my  wife  to  be  grabbed  up  by 
somebody  else."  These,  and  other  remarks,  show 
that  all  the  people  in  Germany  are  not  patriots.  A 
soldier  of  the  54th  regiment  declared  himself  to  be 
a  Socialist,  and  said  he  did  not  like  killing  his  fellow- 
men.  Another. declared  that  the  only  men  he  wished 
to  kill  were  his  officer  and  his  sergeant-major,  who 
had  been  cruel  to  him;  and  he  added:  "I  came 
away  to  save  myself  from  being  killed  by  them."  A 
large  number  of  Jews  surrendered  because  they  would 
not  fight  against  their  fellow  Jews,  who,  they  had 
heard,  were  enlisting  in  large  numbers  in  the  French 
and  English  armies. 

The  loss  of  men  of  these  descriptions  would  not 
weaken  the  German  Army;  but  many  thousands  of 
the  genuine  prisoners  were  inveterate  in  their  hatred 
of  Britain  and  everything  British;  and,  strange  as 
it  seems,  these  were  the  men  from  whom  I  gained 
the  most  useful  information.  They  were  boastful 
and  threatening :  "  Our  Kaiser  will  be  in  your  dirty 
country  on  such  and  such  a  day;  and  then  you'll 
catch  it !  "  "  Nonsense,"  I  would  reply ;  "  he  hasn't 
got  men  enough  to  fight  on  this  front,  and  invade 
England  as  well."     "  Oh  yes,  he  has.     All  our  best 


THE  FIRST  INVASION  OF  EAST  PRUSSIA         91 

troops  have  gone  to  crush  the  English.  Any  men  are 
good  enough  to  defeat  these  red-snouted  pigs.  The 
Guard  Corps  has  gone  to  destroy  your  Guards ;  "  and 
then  the  fellow  would  go  on  to  say  where  the  various 
German  corps  were  stationed,  which  was  valuable  in- 
formation. In  this  way  I  first  learned  that  the  Eng- 
lish Guards  were  in  France ;  and  many  important  de- 
tails of  the  fighting  there  —  details  which  it  was 
troublesome  to  verify,  but  I  did  verify  them :  and  so 
various  and  important  was  the  information  I  gath- 
ered that  I  was,  for  a  time,  much  employed  in  this 
work  by  the  Russian  staff. 

Much  that  I  learned  was  at  variance  with  what  I 
afterwards  read  in  English  newspapers.  Evidently 
Germany  was  not  so  short  of  foodstuffs  and  munitions 
of  war  as  newspaper-men  and  politicians  often  fondly 
imagined  they  were.  I  obtained  clear  proof  that,  in 
the  early  stages  of  the  war,  and  as  late  as  February 
or  March,  both  food  and  copper  were  sent  in  large 
quantities  by  neutrals  through  neutrals,  and  also 
metals  and  munitions.  The  Americans,  I  firmly 
believe,  were  generally  antagonistic  to  Germany  and 
her  policy;  but  there  is  in  the  United  States  a  very 
large  body  of  people  of  Teutonic  birth  or  descent, 
many  of  whom  are  rich  and  influential  tradesmen, 
and  no  effectual  steps  were  taken  to  prevent  these 
persons  from  supplying  their  compatriots  on  the 
European  Continent  with  stores  of  goods  of  every  de- 
scription. They  even  did  so  on  credit  and  under 
promise  of  rich  reward  when  that  golden  apple,  Al- 
bion, had  dropped  into  the  Kaiser's  maw.     Items  of 


92        AN  ENGLISHMAN  IN  THE  RUSSIAN  RANKS 

interest  which  I  gained  from  German  prisoners  were 
very  numerous,  and  of  intense  interest.  I  heard 
much  about  the  brutal  treatment  of  our  prisoners, 
and  the  destruction  of  our  towns  by  airships ;  inf or- 

'  mation  which,  I  know,  required  to  be  accepted  with 
caution;  but  I  verified  it  by  cross-questioning  and 
other  means,  to  the  extent  of  learning  certainly  that 
places  on  our  island  had  been  wrecked  by  aeroplanes, 
and  many  lives  lost.  The  circumstantial  details 
given  were  too  clear  to  leave  a  doubt  on  one's  mind. 
Most  of  those  from  whom  I  gathered  information 
were  men  who  had  resided  in  England. 

Concerning  the  food-supply  of  our  enemies,  I 
learned  what  steps  they  were  taking  to  husband  their 
stores,  and  I  am  satisfied  that  with  what  they  have 
got,  and  what  is  still  leaking  into  their  country,  they 
can  probably  hold  out  for  two  years  at  least.  If 
they  are  beaten  sooner  it  must  be  by  force  of  arms, 
not  by  starvation,  though  this  will  be  their  ultimate 
fate  if  the  war  is  much  prolonged;  for  Germany  is 
not  self-supporting,  and  as  her  troops  are  driven  back, 

'  the  area  from  which  she  can  draw  supplies  will  be 
rapidly  curtailed. 


CHAPTER  VIII 

THE    KAISEE.  NOT   A   SUCCESSFUL   GENERAL 

The  movements  of  the  German  troops  were  amazing. 
Some  of  the  men  we  took  prisoners  had  been  rushed 
up  from  Belgium,  back  again,  sent  into  Austria,  and 
brought  back  to  East  Prussia ;  and  all  this  in  less  than 
two  months.  I  mean  that  the  entire  corps,  or  divi- 
sions, to  which  these  men  had  belonged  had  been  so 
shifted  about.  The  Prussian  Guards  were  smashed 
up  at  Ypres  by  our  splendid  "  British  Grenadiers  " 
(we  soon  learned  this),  and  then  came  and  faced  us, 
when  they  did  not  fare  much  better.  Probably  it 
was  the  recruits  who  replaced  the  first  lot  who  came 
to  make  the  acquaintance  of  the  Russian  bayonets. 
As  to  their  Kaiser,  he  was  reported  to  be  in  a  dozen 
places  at  one  and  the  same  time.  He  was  certainly 
at  Soldau,  or  in  its  neighbourhood,  during  the  last 
week  of  September;  but  I  did  not  learn  the  exact 
date  of  his  arrival  in  the  East.  Like  most  exalted 
potentates  of  his  stamp  —  compounds  of  arrogance 
and  blasphemy  —  he  seemed  to  have  some  fears  for 
his  personal  safety,  and  to  be  endeavouring  to  secure 
it  by  shrouding  his  movements  in  a  certain  amount 
of  mystery.  By  the  shouting  and  hymn-singing,  we 
knew  he  was  at  Soldau  on  the  24th ;  but  on  the  27th 
we  received  definite  information  that  he  was  at  Su- 
valki,  which  is  thirteen  versts  over  the  German  bor- 

93 


94        AN  ENGLISHMAN  IN  THE  RUSSIAN  RANKS 

der  and  in  Russian  territory.  This  was  also  the 
first  intimation  we  had  that  our  forces  had  evacuated 
the  Spirding  See,  the  Lake  region ;  and  it  was  not  re- 
ceived as  pleasant  news,  though  anger  rather  than  de- 
pression was  the  prevailing  passion  amongst  us.  Re- 
ports, confirmed  by  the  admission  of  prisoners,  stated 
that  a  quarter  of  a  million  men  had  been  quietly  col- 
lected at  Koenigsberg  and  were  now  being  rapidly 
drafted  into  Poland.  Though  the  Kaiser  was  said  to 
be  in  personal  command  of  the  new  army,  a  General 
von  Hindenburg  was  mentioned  as  being  the  real 
director  of  its  movements.  This  was  the  first  time 
we  had  heard  of  him. 

At  this  period  one  of  the  gTavest  of  Russia's  mis- 
takes was,  in  my  opinion,  an  undue  attention  to  the 
Austrian  section  of  the  big  battle  —  for  the  fight 
really  raged  along  the  entire  eastern  and  northern 
frontiers  of  Germany  and  Austria.  Troops  were 
massed  in  front  of  the  Jaroslav-Lemberg  line,  who 
could  have  been  more  usefully  employed  in  forcing 
back  the  invaders  in  East  Poland.  But  Russia  has 
had  her  eyes  on  Galicia  for  years,  and,  like  a  dog 
with  a  bone,  has  instincts  for  nothing  but  her  prey. 
She  and  her  friends  thought  her  huge  masses  would 
swamp  everything  that  attempted  to  oppose  them. 
This  has  proved  to  be  a  mistaken  opinion,  just  as 
Germany's  idea  that  rushed  masses  would  carry 
everything  before  them  has  turned  out  to  be  an  error. 
In  modern  war  huge  masses  mean  appalling  death 
lists  and  vast  numbers  of  prisoners.  An  army  such 
as  even  ISTapoleon  hardly  ever  saw  is  now  imprisoned 


THE  KAISER  NOT  A  SUCCESSFUL  GENERAL       53 

in  Russia ;  and  another,  scarcely  inferior  to  it  in  num- 
bers, is  interned  in  Germany.  Men  deployed  may 
fall  back  and  escape ;  a  mass  of  columns  under  direct 
artillery  fire  must  surrender  or  be  annihilated.  This 
is  the  reason  that  troops  have  been  captured  in  bodies 
of  thousands  on  both  sides.  It  is  also  the  chief  reason 
that  the  slaughter  has  been  so  excessive. 

On  the  night  of  the  28th,  at  about  10.30,  we  were 
aroused  and  paraded.  I  was  excessively  tired  at  the 
time,  hardly  able  to  keep  my  eyes  open,  and  was  un- 
der the  impression  that  fighting  was  about  to  take 
place  in  our  immediate  neighbourhood;  but  after 
standing  in  a  drenching  rain  for  about  half  an  hour 
we  were  marched  off  —  I  could  not  tell  where  or  in 
what  direction. 

The  night  was  dark,  the  rain  falling  in  torrents, 
and  the  ground  a  quagmire;  but  the  men  marched 
quickly  and  in  perfect  silence.  They  were  not  per- 
mitted to  smoke,  an  indulgence  which  was  usual  on 
marches. 

I  marched  with  an  East  Russian  regiment  from 
Perm,  which  had  already  seen  such  hard  service  that 
it  was  reduced  in  strength  from  4,000  to  less  than 
2,000  men.  There  were  other  regiments  in  the  divi- 
sion which  had  suffered  even  more  severely.  The 
men  were  cheerful,  recent  accounts  of  great  victories 
on  the  Austrian  frontier  having  much  raised  their 
spirits. 

We  plodded  on  till  eight  o'clock  the  next  morning, 
when  we  were  halted,  and  each  man,  including  offi- 
cers, was  handed  a  mug  of  coffee  and  two  large  bis- 


96        AN  ENGLISHMAN  IN  THE  RUSSIAN  RANKS 

cuits,  commissariat  carts  passing  down  the  ranks  for 
this  purpose.  It  was  still  raining.  During  the 
night  we  had  passed  through  two  towns  and  two  vil- 
lages, but  I  had  no  idea  where  we  then  were.  After 
waiting  two  hours  till  about  10  a.m.,  we  resumed  our 
march,  and  after  proceeding  four  or  five  versts  ar- 
rived at  Ostrolenka  railway-station.  Troops  were 
leaving  this  place  by  train,  and  we  were  placed  in 
carriages  about  noon,  and  departed  eastward.  I 
shared  a  compartment  with  six  officers  and  was  able 
to  hold  a  little  communication  with  them.  Their 
opinion  was  that  we  were  going  to  Grodno,  about  150 
versts  from  Ostrolenka.  After  smoking  a  cigar  or 
two  they  all  went  to  sleep  and  within  a  few  minutes 
I  had  followed  their  example,  and  was  so  dog-tired 
that  I  did  not  awake  until  I  was  aroused  at  Grodno, 
where  we  arrived  at  six  o'clock  in  the  evening.  The 
sound  of  heavy  artillery  firing  was  heard  as  we  stood 
on  the  platform ;  but  no  information  could  be  gleaned 
about  what  was  going  on,  and  in  a  short  time  we 
were  placed  in  another  train  and  sent  off  in  the  direc- 
tion of  Suvalki,  the  capital  tovrn  of  a  province  of  the 
same  name.  At  ten  o'clock  we  were  detrained  on  the 
line  near  to  a  large  sheet  of  water,  probably  at  Ots- 
chauka. 

A  big  battle  was  going  on  some  eight  or  ten  versts 
away.  We  could  hear  a  tremendous  sound  of  firing, 
and  could  see  the  red  reflection  in  the  sky  for  many 
miles  on  either  hand.  Without  delay  we  were 
marched  towards  this  scene  of  conflict,  and  at  once 
began  to  meet  long  lines  of  wounded  men  and  pris- 


THE  KAISER  NOT  A  SUCCESSFUL  GENERAL       97 

oners.  The  Germans  were  reported  to  be  getting  the 
worst  of  the  fight,  but  the  Russians  stood  in  need  of 
reinforcements. 

We  hurried  on,  the  men  marching  at  a  very  quick 
step,  but  often  floundering  through  slush  and  mud. 
The  ground  was  very  soft  and  marshy,  and  full  of 
ponds  and  streams  with  steep  banks.  Troops  were 
in  front  of  us,  and  others  behind ;  and  judging  from 
a  spluttering  rifle-fire,  I  thought  our  flank  was  being 
protected  by  a  cavalry  skirmishing  line.  It  was  the 
first  serious  night-fight  in  which  I  had  been  engaged. 
As  we  advanced  it  became  more  and  more  evident 
that  it  was  a  battle  of  an  extensive  and  desperate  de- 
scription; and  enough  could  be  seen  to  show  that  its 
front  extended  at  least  twenty  versts,  and  probably 
much  more. 

At  length  we  were  halted  and  deployed  into  line; 
and  I  thought  other  infantry  regiments  were  coming 
up  on  both  flanks ;  but  the  night  was  too  dark  to  en- 
able one  to  make  sure  of  much.  While  we  were  thus 
engaged  a  cavalry  regiment  rode  into  us  —  it  cannot 
be  said  that  it  charged  —  and  I  have  always  been  of 
opinion  that  they  made  a  mistake  of  some  kind. 
Half  of  them  were  killed,  the  rest  surrendered ;  and  I 
tried  to  gain  possession  of  one  of  their  horses,  as  I 
had  been  recommended  to  do.  I  was  disappointed. 
Some  unmannerly  rascal  took  it  from  me  just  as  I 
was  trying  to  get  into  the  saddle,  and  time  and  cir- 
cumstances made  an  argument  both  difficult  and 
dangerous. 

We  were  within  long  range  of  artillery  fire,  and 


98        AN  ENGLISHMAN  IN  THE  RUSSIAN  RANKS 

stray  shells  burst  over  our  heads  and  fell  amongst 
our  ranks;  and  an  order  was  passed  that  we  were 
to  lie  down.  The  ground  was  sodden,  and  most  of  us 
were  very  damp  if  not  wet  through ;  but  there  we  lay 
for  two  hours  until  about  1.30  a.m.,  when  we  were 
suddenly  ordered  to  advance. 

We  had  not  gone  1,000  yards  when  there  was  some 
wild  shooting  in  front  of  us,  and  to  my  astonishment 
I  found  that  we  were  close  upon  the  enemy.  It  must 
have  been  a  surprise  to  them,  or  they  would  never 
have  permitted  us  to  close  without  riddling  us  with 
rifle  and  cannon  shot  according  to  their  usual  tactics ; 
and  either  desperation  lent  them  energy,  or  they  were 
getting  used  to  the  handling  of  their  weapons,  for  I 
never  saw  a  fiercer  bayonet  fight  on  the  part  of  the 
Germans.  They  burnt  flares,  or  a  similar  contriv- 
ance, which  threw  a  lurid  light  over  the  fiercely  strug- 
gling mass  of  human  furies,  and  benefited  us  as  much 
as  it  did  themselves ;  and  that  was  a  good  thing,  for 
otherwise  it  would  have  been  almost  impossible  to 
distinguish  friend  from  foe,  and  accidents  must  have 
been  of  frequent  occurrence. 

The  enemy  appeared  to  have  made  some  shallow 
rifle  trenches,  but  many  of  them  fought  on  open,  flat 
ground;  and  their  losses  were  terrible.  The  fight 
lasted,  furiously,  desperately,  for  about  a  quarter  of 
an  hour;  then  the  Germans  gave  way  and  ran  for 
their  lives,  closely  followed  by  their  foes.  As  they 
ran  they  unbuckled  their  knapsacks  and  let  them  fall 
to  the  ground.  Many  fell  on  their  knees  and  held 
their  hands  up,  not  always  with  success  in  obtaining 


THE  KAISER  NOT  A  SUCCESSFUL  GENERAL       99 

mercy,  though  hundreds  of  prisoners  were  taken  and 
secured  by  the  reserves  which  were  following  us  in 
support.  Some  threw  themselves  flat  on  the  ground 
and  thus  often  escaped  immediate  death. 

The  officers  on  both  sides  lost  control  of  their  men. 
I  could  hear  the  Germans  shouting  and  threatening 
and  saw  some  of  them  throw  themselves  before  the 
soldiers  in  a  vain  attempt  to  stop  the  headlong  flight ; 
while  our  men  were  so  excited  that  the  commands  of 
their  officers  were  quite  ignored  —  a  very  unusual 
thing  amongst  Russian  soldiers,  whose  reverence  for 
their  commanders  resembles  that  of  saints  for  their 
priests. 

I  believe  the  Germans  suffered  something  from 
their  own  artillery  fire,  their  shells  bursting  amongst 
friends  and  foes  alike.  One  fell  close  in  front  of  me 
and  the  explosion  made  me  shiver;  but  though  it 
killed  at  least  half  a  dozen  men  I  escaped  without  so 
much  as  a  scratch,  though  I  afterwards  found  my 
clothes  torn  by  projectiles  of  some  kind. 

The  pursuit  went  on  for  hours.  When  daylight 
broke  it  had  not  diminished  in  vigour,  and,  the  coun- 
try being  an  open  marsh,  the  enemy,  deprived  of  the 
trenches  in  which  they  love  to  fight,  could  find  no 
point  of  support  and  were  kept  on  the  run.  Many  of 
them,  far  too  heavily  accoutred,  fell  from  exliaustion, 
and  soon  they  began  to  surrender  in  squads  and  com- 
panies. 

Cavalry  on  our  left  front  made  a  demonstration, 
but  the  ground  was  so  rotten  that  they  could  not 
charge;  and  we  soon  began  to  come  up  with  guns 


100      AN  ENGLISHMAN  IN  THE  RUSSIAN  RANKS 

embedded  in  the  mud.  Gumiers  and  horses  were 
bayoneted,  and  the  guns  afterwards  fell  into  our 
hands.  I  was  told  that  hundreds  were  taken;  cer- 
tainly whole  batteries  were  left  behind,  the  majority 
of  the  horses  having  been  worked  to  death  in  an 
endeavour  to  drag  them  away.  I  saw  them  lying 
dead  harnessed  to  guns  and  waggons.  Some  were 
still  dying,  groaning  pitifully,  and  not  a  few  were 
put  out  of  their  misery  by  men  whom  the  fiercest  pas- 
sion could  not  deprive  of  some  sense  of  compassion 
for  innocent  suffering.  I  came  upon  a  German  gun- 
ner engaged  in  this  praiseworthy  work,  and  gave  him 
a  friendly  nod.  He  returned  the  nod  with  equal 
friendliness  before  hopping  after  his  comrades  with  a 
couple  of  pounds  of  mud  clinging  to  each  boot.  Ah ! 
war  is  a  sad,  sad  business.  It  must  be  bred  of  the 
devil :  for  one  would  rather  lose  his  soul  than  fail  to 
sabre  or  stab  the  foe  in  front  of  him ;  and  yet  when 
the  fierce  rage  of  the  fight  is  over,  one  would  give  the 
whole  world  not  to  have  done  such  a  thing. 

The  Prussians  must  have  had  reserves  in  the  field, 
but  we  saw  nothing  of  them.  Either  they  were  dealt 
with  by  other  bodies  of  our  troops,  or,  seeing  that  the 
day  was  lost,  took  the  hint  and  did  not  wait.  Our 
men  kept  up  the  pursuit  until  nearly  noon  the  next 
morning,  when  the  majority  of  them  were  so  ex- 
hausted that  they  threw  themselves  on  the  ground 
and  slept  where  they  lay,  with  the  rain  pelting  down 
upon  them. 

This  action  was  known  to  the  Russians  as  the 
*'  Battle  of  Suvalki,"  and  was  the  nearest  approach  to 


THE  KAISER  NOT  A  SUCCESSFUL  GENERAL     101 

an  old-fashioned  fight  that  had  taken  place.  It  was 
a  tremendous  affair,  fought  on  a  front  of  nearly  thirty 
English  miles;  and  was  a  complete,  unqualified  Ger- 
man defeat.  They  lost  about  30,000  killed  and 
wounded,  and  nearly  as  many  more  taken  prisoners. 
The  Kaiser  was  in  personal  command  throughout  the 
action ;  and  is  responsible  for  the  precious  mess  made 
of  it.  About  300  field-guns  were  captured,  but  some 
of  them  were  so  firmly  embedded  in  the  mud  that 
they  could  not  be  dragged  off,  horses  being  scarce. 
According  to  my  estimate  at  least  8,000  of  these  poor 
beasts  perished  in  the  fight.  There  is  no  exaggera- 
tion in  these  estimations.  One  column  of  prisoners 
alone  which  I  passed  on  its  way  to  the  interior  of 
Russia  was  five  miles  long,  the  men  marching  with- 
out a  break,  in  double  file,  or  six  abreast,  according  to 
German  formation.  (The  German  file  is  usually 
three  men  deep,  and  not  two,  as  it  is  in  most  other 
European  armies.) 

Both  sides  were  thoroughly  exhausted  by  this  tre- 
mendous struggle;  and  there  was  no  fighting  on  the 
latter  part  of  the  1st  and  the  whole  of  the  2nd  of 
October;  at  any  rate  by  the  troops  which  had  been 
engaged  in  the  main  battle.  On  the  3rd  we  resumed 
our  advance  into  Prussia,  but  late  in  the  afternoon 
were  ordered  to  halt,  and  the  remainder  of  the  day 
was  spent  in  taking  up  an  alignment  facing  due  north 
towards  Tilsit.  The  object  of  this  movement  was  not 
clear  to  me ;  but  there  can  be  no  doubt  that  our  posi- 
tion was  sometimes  almost  critical.  The  force  which 
fought  the  Battle  of  Suvalki  was  outflanked  both  to 


102      AN  ENGLISHMAN  IN  THE  RUSSIAN  RANKS 

the  north  and  to  the  south,  and  had  we  suffered  de- 
feat the  disaster  would  have  been  a  terrible  one.  The 
Russians  had  not  only  a  huge  marsh  in  their  rear, 
but  also  a  large  and  deep  river  (the  Niemen),  and 
what  that  might  have  meant  may  be  gathered  from 
the  fearful  losses  of  the  Germans  when  they  were 
forced,  as  a  part  of  the  movement  I  have  been  de- 
scribing, over  it  to  the  north  of  Suvalki.  ISTot  much 
about  this  disaster  seems  to  have  leaked  out  as  yet, 
but  it  cost  the  Germans  at  least  another  20,000  men, 
nearly  all  of  whom  perished  by  drowning ;  in  fact,  the 
passage  of  the  ISTiemen  is  second  only,  as  a  military 
debacle,  to  that  of  the  Beresina  in  I^apoleon's  days. 
Eye-witnesses,  whose  veracity  cannot  be  questioned, 
amongst  them  being  General  Rennenkampf,  asserted 
that  whole  companies,  and  batteries  of  artillery,  were 
swept  away,  the  heavy  rains  having  greatly  increased 
the  current  of  the  river.  Heavy  siege  guns,  destined 
for  the  bombardment  of  Warsaw,  were  lost ;  and  sev- 
eral of  the  bridges  constructed  by  the  German  engi- 
neers collapsed  under  the  excessive  weight  forced 
upon  them;  while  two  of  these  structures  were  de- 
molished by  the  Russian  shell  fire,  being  crowded 
with  men  at  the  time.  In  fact,  whatever  the  out- 
come of  the  campaign,  the  Germans  will  never  forget 
the  dressing  they  got  at  the  passage  of  the  ^Niemen 
below  Tilsit. 

The  effect  of  the  battle  of  Suvalki  was  very  great. 
The  German  objective  had  been  Warsaw,  and  they 
tried  to  seize  it,  as  they  tried  to  seize  Paris,  by  a 
rapid  and  impetuous  advance.     They  had  reached 


THE  KAISER  NOT  A   SUCCESSFUL  GENERAL      lOi 

Suvalki  and  Rovno  in  the  north,  and  their  advanced 
parties  were  on  their  way  to  Wilna,  the  capture  of 
which  w^ould  have  cut  the  communications  of  War- 
saw ;  while  southwards  thej  had  reached  Radom,  140 
miles  over  the  border,  and  two-thirds  of  the  way  to 
Warsaw.  Suvalki  saved  Warsaw;  for  it  compelled 
the  Germans  to  fall  back  north  and  south  and  evacu- 
ate West  Poland.  It  is  beyond  all  measure  the  most 
important  victory  the  Russians  have  gained;  for 
though  the  loss  of  Warsaw  would  not  necessarily  mean 
the  loss  of  the  war,  it  would  be  a  nasty  blow  to  the 
Muscovite  prestige,  and  might  entail  the  loss  of  Petro- 
grad.  As  one  of  their  most  fervent  well-wishers  I 
heartily  rejoice  that  they  won  Suvalki.  It  must 
have  been  a  knock-dov^Ti  blow  for  Wilhelm  der  Grosse, 
as  it  showed  conclusively  that  if  he  is  a  Napoleonic 
tyrant  he  is  not  a  ]S[apoleonic  genius.  Like  the  little 
man  with  the  large  head  he  is  a  big  scoundrel;  but, 
unlike  the  Corsican,  he  is  not  a  great  soldier. 

A  wonderful  army,  though,  is  this  German  Army. 
After  suffering  a  crushing  defeat  and  losing,  with 
those  drowned  in  the  Piemen,  from  70,000  to  80,000 
men,  they  drew  off  in  fairly  good  order,  and  in  a 
few  days  were  again  a  formidable  host.  They  did 
not  sustain  a  "  rout."  'No  fair,  impartial  account  of 
what  really  occurred  can  go  so  far  as  to  say  that.  A 
crushing  defeat  it  was,  but  not  a  rout. 

These  operations  cost  the  Germans,  in  addition  to 
their  loss  of  men,  about  700  guns  of  various  descrip- 
tions and  18,000  horses.  About  850  waggons  and 
carts  fell  into  the  Russian  hands. 


CHAPTER  IX 

CHIEFLY    PERSO]SrAL    MATTEIE, 

The  Russian  soldier  is  a  splendid  fellow:  I  do  not 
go  so  far  as  to  say  that  he  is  a  first-class  fighter.  It 
is  really  difficult  to  describe  him  correctly.  He  has 
been  represented  repeatedly  as  a  dogged  being ;  so  he 
is.  His  courage,  too,  is  unimpeachable ;  but  it  is  not 
a  very  intelligent  courage.  The  Russian  soldier  must 
be  led,  and  the  better  led  he  is  the  better  he  will  fight. 
He  has,  as  I  have  already  hinted,  an  almost  religious 
reverence  for  his  acknowledged  superiors ;  and  he  is 
a  religious  man.  Perhaps  it  would  be  better  to  say, 
a  superstitiously  religious  man.  He  nearly  always 
carries  a  relic  or  a  little  ikon  of  some  kind,  and  to  this 
he  frequently  prays,  kissing  it  at  the  same  time.  He 
has  an  intense  reverence  for  the  Holy  Virgin,  and  a 
common  form  of  greeting  is,  "  Brother,  Christ  is 
risen,"  to  which  the  comrade  addressed  replies,  "  He 
is  risen,  indeed."  Faithful,  true-hearted  and  gener- 
ous, he  never  forsakes  a  friend;  and,  on  the  other 
hand,  I  am  afraid  he  never  forgives  an  enemy.  He 
can  be  dreadfully  cruel  to  those  he  hates ;  yet,  in  his 
ordinary  mood,  it  would  be  difficult  to  find  a  man  who 
has  a  stronger  natural  dislike  to  shedding  blood.     He 

makes  a  good  husband,  is  passionately  fond  of  chil- 

104 


CHIEFLY  PERSONAL  MATTER  105 

dren;  but  is  not  a  merciful  man  in  his  dealing  with 
dumb  animals.  He  is  pudding-headed,  but  not  ob- 
stinate in  the  usual  acceptance  of  the  word;  and  his 
friend,  or  his  officer,  can  lead  him  anywhere.  In  a 
fight  he  dies  like  a  Roman,  and  never  abandons  his 
leader.  It  is  difficult  to  imagine  him  a  revolutionist 
or  a  King-killer,  though  history  has  recorded  that  he 
can  be  either ;  and  some  terrible  things  have  occurred 
even  in  the  reign  of  the  present  Czar, 

That  part  of  the  Russian  Army  with  which  I  was 
mostly  in  contact  was  composed  almost  entirely  of 
Siberians,  people  who  retain  very  markedly  the  fea- 
tures of  their  Mongolian  origin.  They  are  Asiatics, 
as,  indeed,  are  many  Russians.  At  any  rate,  this 
seemed  to  be  perfectly  clear,  judging  from  their  fea- 
tures and  other  indications;  though,  I  must  confess, 
I  am  not  learned  on  the  subject  of  the  origin  of  na- 
tions. Their  habits,  too,  are  largely  Asiatic,  and 
there  was  a  considerable  admixture  of  Tartar  blood 
in  some  of  the  regiments ;  and  in  others  many  of  the 
men  would  easily  have  passed  as  Chinese.  Some  of 
the  regiments  were  composed  of  Kirghiz ;  and  one,  at 
least,  of  Mongolians  pure  and  simple. 

I  fell  into  some  confusion  concerning  the  num- 
bering and  naming  of  the  regiments,  because  there 
seem  to  be  several  distinct  armies  in  the  Russian 
services.  The  Siberian  is  one  of  these  armies:  and 
some  of  the  regiments  were  only  known  by  their  terri- 
torial designation,  while  others  had  both  name  and 
number.  The  army  from  "  All  the  Russias  "  seems 
to  be  considered  the  elite  troops;  but  in  my  opinion 


106     AN  ENGLISHMAN  IN  THE  RUSSIAN  RANKS 

the  Siberians  are  not  in  any  way  inferior  to  them, 
and  the  Tiflis  Rifles  is  one  of  the  finest  bodies  of  light 
infantry  I  have  ever  seen. 

The  physique  of  the  men,  generally,  is  magnifi- 
cent, and  their  powers  of  endurance  unsurpassed  by 
that  of  any  soldiers  in  the  world.  They  can  march 
and  fight,  too,  on  rations  so  scanty  and  coarse  that  I 
much  doubt  if  any  other  European  soldiers  would 
tolerate  such  food.  Many  of  the  regiments  for  days 
had  no  better  diet  than  tea  and  biscuit.  Milk  was 
not  drunk  in  the  tea,  but  sugar  was  used  when  it 
could  be  obtained.  The  troops  were  supposed  to 
have  a  ration  of  sugar,  and  also  salt.  Some  years 
ago  the  sugar  ration  was  abolished,  but  the  health 
of  the  men  deteriorated  so  much  that  it  was  again 
served  out  to  them  with  beneficial  results ;  so  it  would 
seem  that  sugar  is  necessary  to  human  health. 
"  How  did  people  do  when  there  was  no  sugar  ?  " 
"  When  was  that  ?  "  "  Before  sugar  honey  was  uni- 
versally used;  and  honey  is  certainly  a  natural 
sugar."  The  faddist  is  a  very  tiresome  person  any- 
where ;  above  all  things  he  should  be  kept  away  from 
armies  and  navies,  where  he  may  do  much  mischief. 
Now  the  non-alcoholic  idiot  is  getting  the  sway. 
What  a  pass  things  are  coming  to !  Waterloo  was 
fought  on  beer,  and  Trafalgar  on  rum ;  but  I  remem- 
ber at  the  "  Battle  of  Dorking  "  a  Stafli-Officer  "  came 
between  a  poor  cove  and  his  grub,"  who  nearly  got 
himself  shot  for  complaining  —  the  "  poor  cove  "  I 
mean,  not  the  Staff-Ofiicer. 

The  victory  at  Suvalki  had  far-reaching  effects. 


CHIEFLY  PERSONAL  MATTER  107 

Even  at  the  few  posts  where  the  Germans  were  not 
forced  back  thej  were  compelled  to  retire.  Some 
of  their  cavalry  made  an  effort  to  check  the  pursuit, 
but  it  was  unavailing.  What  appeared  to  be  parts 
of  two  regiments,  hussars  and  dragoons,  had  the 
temerity  to  charge  a  battalion  of  our  regiment.  The 
greater  part  of  them  went  down  in  a  heap,  men  and 
horses  together.  On  our  side  a  regiment  of  Cossacks 
(said  to  be  the  3rd  of  the  Don)  charged  a  battalion 
of  Prussians  and  dispersed  them,  taking  100  pris- 
oners, including  a  colonel.  During  the  retreat  of  the 
Germans  many  small  fights  occurred  which  had  no 
particular  results  on  the  campaign.  By  the  3rd 
October  whole  corps  of  Russians  were  on  Prussian 
soil. 

It  was  unfortunate  that  heavy  rains  again  began 
to  fall,  as  they  prevented  so  close  a  pursuit  as  would 
otherwise  have  harassed  the  enemy.  The  country 
west  of  Suvalki,  naturally  a  marsh,  was  rendered  a 
huge  lake.  The  water  was  not  deep  enough  to  pre- 
vent the  advance  of  cavalry  and  infantry;  but  guns 
could  not  be  dragged  through  the  mud,  and  without 
them  it  would  have  been  unsafe  to  advance  very 
far.  Many  of  those  captured  from  the  Germans  were 
lost  owing  to  the  state  of  the  ground,  but  I  do  not 
think  they  were  recovered  by  the  enemy.  They  sank 
into  the  morass  and  so  disappeared. 

I  was  very  glad  when  a  halt  was  called  and  we 
were  ordered  to  find  what  shelter  we  could,  the  regi- 
ment being  far  in  advance  of  the  main  body.  The 
Germans   had   sadly   devastated   the   country.     We 


108      AN  ENGLISHMAN  IN  THE  RUSSIAN  RANKS 

passed  over  many  miles  of  country  in  which  scarcely 
so  much  as  the  shell  of  a  house  was  left  standing: 
all  were  charred  and  blackened ;  and  men,  women  and 
children  were  found  murdered.  The  bodies  of  two 
young  boys  under  twelve  years  of  age  lay  on  the  roof 
of  a  low  outhouse.  They  had  been  bayoneted  and 
thrown  there,  nobody  could  surmise  why.  Some 
bodies  were  burnt  to  cinders,  and  others  had  been 
torn  and  partly  eaten  by  swine  and  dogs.  The  dogs, 
by-the-by,  were  nimierous,  and  very  fierce  brutes. 

In  some  spots,  where  the  Germans  had  bivouacked, 
the  heads  and  offal  of  pigs  showed  that  they  had  shot 
some  of  these  animals,  and  also  killed  ducks  and 
fowls,  for  food,  and  cooked  them  at  open-air  fires 
made  of  the  belongings  of  the  peasantry.  Chairs  and 
tables  were  left  outside,  just  in  the  positions  in  which 
they  had  evidently  been  used.  A  dish-cover  was  left 
on  one  table,  and  when  it  was  raised  it  revealed  two 
pairs  of  human  hands  severed  at  the  wrists.  The 
men  to  whom  these  hands  had  belonged,  and  a  woman, 
were  found  shot  in  the  farm-house.  All  were  old 
people,  as  nearly  all  the  murdered  persons  were,  ex- 
cept some  young  women  and  children.  Besides  the 
two  boys  already  mentioned,  a  younger  child  and  a 
little  girl  of  about  fourteen  years  were  seen  lying  on 
the  ground.  The  cause  of  the  death  of  the  girl  did 
not  appear,  and  it  was  probably  caused  by  fright. 
A  woman  clasping  her  baby  had  been  shot.  The 
bodies  had,  in  many  cases,  been  treated  with  disgust- 
ing irreverence.  Even  a  hunchbacked  man  had  been 
shot,  and  a  poor  old  fellow  with  beard  and  hair  as 


CHIEFLY  PERSONAL  MATTER  lO* 

white  as  snow.  One  sturdy  dame  seemed  to  have 
attempted  to  fight  for  her  life,  for  she  held  a  hoe  in 
her  dead  hands.     Her  body  was  riddled  by  bullets. 

To  escape  the  rain  I  climbed  up  the  half-burnt 
rafters  of  a  cottage  to  a  room  in  which  a  portion  of 
the  floor  and  a  corner  of  the  roof  were  still  in  posi- 
tion —  I  cannot  say  intact.  Here,  in  imminent  dan- 
ger of  a  fall,  I  slept  the  instant  I  stretched  myself 
on  the  boards.  Below  were  a  score  of  exhausted  sol- 
diers, too  utterly  weary  to  care  a  rap  for  danger  from 
falling  walls :  and  long  and  soundly  we  all  slept. 

No  food  had  been  served  out  for  two  days,  and 
when  a  commissariat  waggon  came  up  only  about  half 
the  men  obtained  biscuits.  I  was  thinking  of  cook- 
ing a  pig's  head  left  behind  by  the  Germans  when  a 
soldier  generously  gave  me  half  a  biscuit.  Others 
followed  his  example,  and  in  this  way  I  obtained  a 
breakfast.  The  pigs  which  had  escaped  the  Prus- 
sians had  all  run  away,  but  later  in  the  day  one  was 
found  and  killed,  and  about  two  pounds  of  its  flesh 
found  its  way  into  my  hands.  We  resumed  our 
march  at  11  a.m.,  the  enemy  being  known  to  be  not 
far  off.  During  the  afternoon  we  came  up  with  one  ■ 
of  their  abandoned  waggons.  It  was  full  of  cham- 
pagne and  hock !  I  am  glad  there  were  no  tee- 
totallers about  to  witness  the  capture.  What  King 
Jamie  meant  by  being  "  fu' "  I  do  not  presume  to 
know ;  but  I  am  quite  sure  some  of  us  were  "  tight " 
before  that  waggon  was  done  with,  and  I  should  like 
to  see  the  teetotaller,  of  exalted  or  humble  rank, 
who  would  resist  the  temptation  of  a  good  "  swig 


}> 


110      AN  ENGLISHMAN  IN  THE  RUSSIAN  RANKS 

after  forty-eight  hours  of  such  misery  as  we  had  just 
gone  through. 

Apparently  the  Germans  observed  this  capture; 
for  they  fired  two  shells  at  us  from  a  range  of  about 
three  miles.     One  shot  fell  200  yards  from  us,  the 

)  other  came  a  little  nearer,  but  neither  interrupted  the 
interesting  work  in  hand. 

ISTotwithstanding  the  preconceived  opinions  of  book 
strategists,  long-range  firing  does  not  seem  to  be  pro- 
ductive of  very  destructive  results,  even  with  heavy 
artillery.  It  was  certainly  not  much  resorted  to  in 
this  campaign.  Even  rifle  shooting  seldom  took 
place  at  a  longer  range  than  1,000  yards ;  and  much 
oftener  at  not  more  than  half  that  distance;  while 
firing  at  point-blank  range  was  frequent.  The  bay- 
onet did  as  much  work  as  in  any  war  that  ever  took 
place;  in  some  fights  half  the  casualties  were  caused 
by  its  use.  Cavalry,  too,  faced  infantry  fire  boldly 
and  successfully.  We  were  to  have  no  more  charges 
of  masses  of  cavalry  according  to  the  theorists.  But 
on  at  least  half-a-dozen  occasions  bodies  of  over  4,000 

,  horsemen  made  most  telling  charges.  In  one  case  at 
least  10,000  cavalry  took  part  in  a  charge,  riding  over 
the  Prussian  infantry  as  they  might  have  ridden  over 
stubble.  The  Cossacks,  like  the  Uhlans,  have  hooks 
attached  to  the  butts  of  their  lances ;  and  with  these 
they  whipped  ofiicers  from  their  horses,  and  men  from 
the  ground  in  the  most  extraordinary  way,  sometimes 
pulling  them  up  into  their  own  saddles  and  bringing 
them  in  prisoners.  How  they  liked  the  humiliation 
of  this  treatment  may  be  gathered  from  the  remark 


CHIEFLY  PERSONAL  MATTER  111 

of  one  officer  made  to  me  in  English,  "  D n  it ! 

I  would  rattier  have  been  killed  " ;  but  he  joined  in 
the  general  laugh  at  his  accident. 

Perhaps  I  have  no  right  to  record  mere  impres- 
sions and  ideas ;  and  I  intend  to  avoid  doing  so  gen- 
erally ;  but  there  are  some  opinions  and  beliefs  which 
had  a  general  bearing  on  what  I  did,  and  especially 
on  what*!  recorded;  and  I  think  I  may  be  excused 
if  I  sometimes  refer  to  these. 

As  a  case  in  point,  I  was  generally  very  ignorant 
of  what  was  taking  place  in  other  areas  of  the  war. 
German  newspapers  were  pretty  plentiful  in  all  our 
camps;  but  very  few  French  or  British  found  their 
way  into  our  hands.  German  accounts  were  not  re- 
liable in  my  opinion,  but  some  of  their  statements 
could  hardly  be  altogether  imtrue.  The  news  of  the 
loss  by  submarine  torpedoes  of  the  three  battleships, 
AhouMr,  Hogue  and  Cressy,  perturbed  me  greatly. 
The  reports  in  German  newspapers,  combined  with 
other  rumours  which  reached  us,  made  it  clear  enough 
that  the  British  l^avy  had  met  with  a  great  disaster, 
though  I  was  compelled  to  rely  on  the  translations  of 
Kussian  comrades  of  these  German  reports. 

The  Russian  cavalry  made  some  attempts  to  pene- 
trate East  Prussia,  and  get  at  the  trains  which  were 
conveying  troops  from  Koenigsberg  southwards;  but 
none  of  these  attempts  were  successful  so  far  as  I 
have  heard.  A  few  isolated  patrols  got  a  long  way 
into  Prussia,  but,  I  think,  in  no  case  did  they  succeed 
in  wrecking  a  train. 

Eor  a  time  I  was  out  of  action,  though  I  tried  to 


112     AN  ENGLISHMAN  IN  THE  RUSSIAN  RANKS 

reach  the  scenes  of  fighting  I  heard  was  in  progress. 
The  East  Prussian  frontier  is  a  very  difficult  country 
for  military  operations,  especially  those  of  an  offen- 
sive description.  The  marsh  lands  are  very  exten- 
sive, and  there  are  numerous  lakes  and  ponds  which 
greatly  aid  the  defending  force,  while  much  hinder- 
ing those  engaged  in  the  attack.  Lakes  and  marshes 
enable  an  army  on  the  defensive  greatly  to  extend 
its  front ;  which  those  engaged  in  the  assault  cannot 
do  without  at  any  rate  incurring  great  risks.  The 
Germans  often  threw  up  batteries  between  two  lakes, 
or  a  lake  and  a  marsh  situated  near  each  other.  As 
these  could  be  approached  only  on  a  narrow  neck  of 
land,  they  could  be  defended  by  a  mere  handful  of 
men,  while  the  attacking  force  was  not  only  compelled 
to  advance  a  strong  party,  but  had,  also,  to  keep  others 
in  hand  to  prevent  being  outflanked. 

Something  of  this  kind  of  fighting  I  saw;  but 
much  of  it  occurred  further  south,  near  the  Vistula 
river,  in  a  district  where  I  was  not  engaged  at  the 
time  it  took  place. 

These  marshes  and  lakes  greatly  assisted  the  Ger- 
mans and  probably  saved  them  from  the  rout  which 
they  are  supposed  by  some  people  to  have  sustained. 
I  do  not  know  of  any  instance  where  they  were 
forced  to  evacuate  such  a  defensive  position  as  that 
I  have  described.  In  fact  the  marshes  of  East  Prus- 
sia saved  the  country  from  a  serious  invasion,  and 
certainly  checked  the  Russian  advance  into  the  heart 
of  the  country.  If  heavy  siege  guns  could  have  been 
brought  up  they  might  have  effected  something;  but 


CHIEFLY  PERSONAL  MATTER  113 

as  it  was,  not  even  light  field  artillery  could  be  moved 
over  the  ground  in  any  quantity.  The  amount  of 
rain  which  fell  was  quite  abnormal,  and  was  often 
almost  incessant  for  days  together.  Then  there 
would  be  some  signs  of  a  clear  up;  but  long  before 
m.ore  than  the  surface  of  the  ground  was  dry  it 
would  begin  to  pour  down  again.  I  never  saw  so 
much  mud  in  any  other  country,  nor  such  deep,  ten- 
acious stuff.  Even  men  sometimes  stuck  fast  in  it 
and  had  to  be  hauled  out  of  quagmires  with  the  aid 
of  ropes.  I  have  recorded  that  the  Germans  lost 
many  guns  owing  to  their  sinking  into  it ;  some  also 
were  lost  by  the  Russians,  even  when  they  were  not 
under  fire ;  and  the  destruction  of  horses  through  be- 
ing smothered  to  death  or  by  exhaustion  was  deplor- 
able. In  fact  the  mud  sometimes  troubled  the  Rus- 
sians far  more  than  the  foe  did.  It  prevented  the 
commissariat  and  reserve  ammunition  waggons  from 
coming  up ;  but,  on  the  whole,  lying  in  it,  and  being 
subjected  to  a  continuous  downpour  of  rain,  did  not 
seem  to  adversely  affect  the  health  of  the  men.  The 
field  hospitals  were  always  crowded  by  wounded,  but 
the  sick  from  disease  were  singularly  few  in  number. 
Amongst  other  things  about  which  there  were  ru- 
mours in  our  army  was  the  destruction  that  airships 
and  aeroplanes  were  causing.  The  Russians  had 
aeroplanes ;  but  they  were  not  strong  in  this  kind  of 
military  force,  and  we  seldom  saw  one.  The  Ger- 
mans, however,  occasionally  sent  a  few  over  our  lines, 
and  on  the  5th  October  I  saw  one  shot  down.  It 
swerved  a  good  deal,  and  I  expected  to  see  it  turn 


114      AN  ENGLISHMAN  IN  THE  RUSSIAN  RANKS 

over  and  drop,  but  it  came  down  slowly  enough  to 
prevent  the  airmen  from  sustaining  much  hurt.  The 
"  navigator  "  was  one  of  the  most  irritable  and  ar- 
rogant rascals  I  ever  met.  He  was  very  angry  at  his 
accident,  and  fumed  and  swore  incessantly  and  had 
not  the  least  fear  of  consequences  before  his  eyes. 
He  shook  his  fist  in  the  faces  of  the  Cossacks  and  of- 
ficers who  first  came  up  to  his  wrecked  machine,  beat 
and  kicked  his  unfortunate  mechanic,  and  raved  like 
a  lunatic.  Even  his  captors  seemed  to  be  in  consid- 
erable awe  of  him.  Some  hours  afterwards  I  saw 
this  fellow  eating  a  meal  outside  a  tent.  He  was 
devouring  the  food  like  what  he  probably  was  —  a 
human  hog. 

Another  astonishing  trait  in  the  German  Army 
was  the  remarkable  way  in  which  it  frequently  re- 
covered lost  ground.  The  Battle  of  Suvalki,  and  the 
operations  further  south,  had  the  effect  of  causing  a 
general  retirement  of  the  enemy's  line ;  and  amongst 
other  places  they  abandoned  was  Radom;  but  in  a 
week  or  ten  days  they  were  back  in  this  place,  and 
had  even  pushed  much  nearer  to  Warsaw.  Our 
scouts  ascertained  that  they  were  in  force  along  the 
Vistula  from  Ivangorod  to  Varko;  and  their  Uhlan 
patrols  were  seen  at  the  hamlet  of  Vistikar,  near 
Gora,  not  twenty  versts  from  Warsaw.  Whether 
they  ever  got  nearer  to  the  ancient  city  I  do  not  know, 
but  for  a  time  we  all  expected  and  feared  that  it 
would  fall.  ISTobody  believed  that  the  old  capital  of 
Poland  could  long  stand  against  an  investment  by 
our  powerful  and  cunning  foes. 


CHIEFLY  PERSONAL  MATTER  115 

Eut,  while  recovering  themselves  in  the  south, 
the  Germans  did  not,  at  this  time,  do  so  in  the  Su- 
valki  district,  or  in  those  parts  near  the  Spir- 
ding  See  where  the  recent  severe  fighting  had 
taken  place :  Kussian  soldiers  still  remained  on  Ger- 
man soil. 

The  weather  grew  worse,  and  seriously  affected 
most  of  our  important  operations.  Gloom  began  to 
settle  on  the  troops ;  especially  when  accounts  of  ad- 
versity to  our  forces  in  Galicia  reached  us.  These 
generally  came  from  German  sources;  but  some  of 
our  own  ofiicers  brought  news  that  progress  was  being 
stopped  by  floods,  and  the  enormous  reinforcement 
the  enemy  had  succeeded  in  bringing  up.  Often  we 
did  not  know  what  to  believe;  the  reports  were  so 
contradictory  that  it  was  evident  one  side  or  another 
was  telling  deliberate  lies.  A  comical  side  was  once 
or  twice  given  to  the  matter,  owing  to  German,  Aus- 
trian and  Russian  "  unofficial  sources  "  giving  dia- 
metrically opposite  accounts  of  the  same  circum- 
stances. Willing  as  we  were  to  believe  our  own  side 
to  be  the  most  truthful,  it  was  not  always  possible  to 
ignore  the  circumstantiality  of  our  opponents.  It 
became  evident  that  all  three  sides  were  a  little  given 
to  exaggeration  —  not  to  give  it  a  harsher  designa- 
tion. 

The  dreadful  weather  was  more  than  I  could  en- 
dure, and  I  was  obliged  to  fall  out.  I  was  taken  by 
rail  to  a  convent  hospital  at  Grodno,  and  there  so  well 
and  carefully  nursed  by  the  sisters,  with  whom  were 
-associated  many  of  the  ladies  of  the  town,  that  I  quite 


116       AN  ENGLISHMAN  IN  THE  RUSSIAN  RANKS 

recovered  and  was  fit  for  service  again  in  less  than  a 
"week. 

I  could  not  find  my  old  regiment,  however,  and  my 
adventures  with  the  Russians  might  have  terminated 
at  this  point  had  I  not  happened  to  run  up  against  an 
officer  with  whom  I  had  some  acquaintance.  Cap- 
tain Shalkotoff  belonged  to  the  commissariat  depart- 
ment; and  as  he  was  going  south  with  a  convoy  he 
invited  me  to  accompany  him  as  far  as  Ostrolenka, 
Ms  first  destination ;  and  I  accepted  his  kind  proposal. 


CHAPTER  X 

THE    FIGHTING-    ON   THE    VISTULA   IN    THE    MONTH    OF 

OCTOBEK,    1914 

Shalkotoff  had  about  eighty  waggons  and  carts 
under  his  command,  all  loaded  with  provisions  which 
had  come  from  Vilna,  where  there  was  a  magazine. 
He  was  travelling  by  march-route,  the  railway-lines 
being  fully  occupied  by  troop  trains,  and  in  the  con- 
veyance of  wounded  men  and  prisoners.  Every  night 
we  camped  in  the  mud  by  the  roadside,  unless  build- 
ings or  houses  were  available,  which  was  not  often, 
the  case.  Eor  the  Germans  had  destroyed  so  many 
of  these  that  what  were  left  were  crowded  by  homeless 
people  herded  together  in  dreadful  misery,  starving, 
and  possessed  of  nothing  but  what  they  stood  in.  We 
passed  through  some  districts,  however,  in  which  a 
German  had  not  been  seen ;  and  in  others  they  had  not 
been  so  brutal  as  the  generality  of  their  countrymen. 
!N^or  are  all  Germans  equally  cruel.  At  a  place 
called  Mirno,  near  Jedvabno,  we  met  a  band  of  200 
prisoners  being  marched  to  the  railway-station  at  Set- 
shutchin  for  conveyance  into  the  interior.  Several 
of  them  were  officers,  and  one,  a  captain,  expressed 
his  disgust  at  the  brutality  of  his  countrymen.  He 
said  it  came  to  him  as  a  terrible  revelation  that  Ger- 
mans could  be  so  cruel  and  wicked,  and  he  was  as 

117 


118       AN  ENGLISHMAN  IN  THE  RUSSIAN  RANKS 

much  astonished  at  it  as  any  person  in  the  world. 
Others,  of  all  ranks,  at  different  times,  expressed 
much  the  same  opinion. 

Perhaps  nothing  hurt  Russian  feeling  more  than 
the  desecration  of  their  churches.  The  Germans 
too  often  evinced  a  bigotry  and  irreverence  for  things 
that  most  people  consider  sacred  similar  to  that  which 
disgraced  our  own  Cromwellians  three  centuries  ago. 
They  stabled  their  horses  in  the  churches,  littered  the 
floors  of  the  sacred  edifices  with  filth,  and  broke  the 
images.  Such  conduct  is  deplorable;  nothing  can 
be  more  revolting  than  to  hurt  a  people  through  its 
religion,  whatever  we  may  think  of  its  bigotry  and 
idolatry.  Besides,  the  indomitable  bravery  of  the 
Greek  and  Romish  priesthood  in  this  deplorable  war 
must  ever  command  the  admiration  of  all  right-think- 
ing men ;  and  this  alone  should  have  protected  them 
from  insult. 

It  is  about  120' miles  from  Grodno  to  Ostrolenka, 
and  it  took  us  nine  days  to  march  this  distance,  so 
defective  was  the  state  of  the  roads.  During  this 
time  we  fared  pretty  sumptuously;  for  the  drivers 
and  officers  helped  themselves  liberally  to  the  pro- 
visions under  their  charge.  In  addition  to  the 
coarse  biscuit,  cheese,  tea,  sugar  and  coffee,  which 
form  the  bulk  of  the  Russian  soldiers'  daily  food, 
there  was  salt  pork,  rancid  butter,  potatoes,  and  a 
number  of  hampers  destined  for  officers  whom  they 
never  reached.  The  broaching  of  such  goods  is  in- 
defensible, but  it  is  pretty  general  in  all  armies,  not 
even  excepting  the  British :  those  who  have  been  sol- 


THE  FIGHTING  ON  THE  VISTULA  119 

diers  know  what  "  old  soldiers  "  are ;  and,  no  doubt, 
I  ought  to  admit  that  I  require  a  brushful  of  white- 
wash myself.  For  a  dish  of  bacon,  or  a  cup  of  wine, 
being  placed  in  front  of  one,  what  is  one  to  do  but 
relieve  the  craving  of  nature  ?  The  only  defence  I 
can  make  is  that  we  all  do  it,  as  circumstances  occa- 
sion. 

At  Ostrolenka  we  were  ordered  on  to  Pultusk ;  and 
here  we  found  a  division  of  infantry  and  another  of 
Cossacks  —  about  14,000  men  in  all,  the  units  being 
reduced  by  the  ravages  of  war.  Among  the  Cossacks 
was  the  celebrated  5th  of  the  Don,  with  its  woman 
colonel,  who  seemed  to  be  not  more  than  thirty  years 
of  age.  She  had  adopted  male  costume,  and  rode 
astride  like  her  troopers.  She  was  a  pleasant-faced 
woman,  but  not  a  beauty,  in  my  opinion;  and  there 
was  nothing  fierce  or  commanding  in  her  appearance. 
She  was  said  to  be  of  unflinching  courage  under  any 
circumstances,  and  to  be  almost  worshipped  by  her 
soldiers.  So  it  may  be  surmised  that  her  rule  is 
gentle  and  just. 

At  Pultusk  I  had  my  first,  and  almost  only,  trouble 
with  the  people  whom  I  was  trying  to  serve.  A  fussy 
officer  wanted  to  know,  rather  too  minutely,  who  I 
was,  and  how  the  non-commissioned  officer,  Chour- 
aski,  came  to  be  travelling  with  me.  I  had  certifi- 
cates, and  Chouraski  a  permit,  signed  by  a  Staff  Of- 
ficer, and  countersigned  by  General  Eennenkampf 
himseK ;  but  it  was  a  long  time  before  the  interfering 
colonel  could  be  persuaded.  He  sent  for  a  captain 
of  the  40th  Siberian  regiment  named  Lofe  who  could 


120       AN  ENGLISHMAN  IN  THE  RUSSIAN  RANKS 

speak  English,  and  ultimately  was  persuaded  to  per- 
mit me  to  join  the  captain's  company,  and  to  retain 
Chouraski  as  a  servant.  I  was  given  no  position  in 
the  regiment,  but  simply  served  as  a  volunteer. 

The  same  night,  the  14th  October,  we  made  a 
forced  march  to  the  railway,  a  distance,  I  computed, 
of  at  least  twenty-four  English  miles.  We  arrived 
at  a  spot  where  there  was  no  station,  and  found 
troops  entraining  and  going  off  in  the  direction  of 
Warsaw.  There  seemed  to  be  miles  of  trains  by  the 
roadside,  and  we  got  into  one  at  a  level-crossing  and 
immediately  steamed  away  south,  as  the  others  bad 
done. 

A  drizzling  rain  was  falling,  the  day  was  close,  and 
a  grey  mist  enveloped  everything  so  that  one  could 
see  nothing  twenty  yards  beyond  the  side  of  the  line. 
In  two  hours  we  arrived  at  Praga,  a  suburb  of  War- 
saw, and  found  the  line  held  strongly  by  infantry 
and  field  artillery.  We  heard  that  heavy  fighting 
was  going  on  beyond  Milosna,  and  our  train  crawling 
on  for  another  twenty  miles,  we  could  hear  the  sounds 
of  the  battle  ourselves.  We  were  ordered  to  alight 
by  the  side  of  the  line,  all  the  stations  having  been, 
put  into  a  state  of  defence  and  turned  into  small  fort- 
resses. 

The  Staff  Officer  who  posted  us  happened  to  be  a 
friend  of  Lofe's,  and  he  told  us  that  the  Germans 
were  making  a  strong  effort  to  break  through  to  the 
line  for  a  distance  of  at  least  ninety  versts ;  and  he 
believed  that  fighting  was  going  on  at  other  points 
as  far  as  Lublin.     The  troops  actually  posted  on  the 


THE  FIGHTING  ON  THE  VISTULA  121 

line  were  reserves;  the  fighting  was  taking  place  at 
the  passages  of  the  Vistula  sixteen  versts  away. 

During  the  night  the  fog  was  so  thick  that  one 
could  not  see  the  man  standing  beside  him.  We 
bivouacked  by  the  side  of  the  line,  which  here  was 
laid  on  perfectly  level  ground.  The  next  morning 
the  weather  was  no  better;  but  when  the  rain  began 
to  fall  faster  the  atmosphere  cleared  a  little,  and  we 
were  ordered  to  advance  about  six  versts  and  dig 
trenches.  We  were  engaged  in  this  work  all  day,  be- 
ing assisted  by  800  country  people,  half  of  whom 
were  women,  who  displayed  the  utmost  anxiety  to 
help  us  in  resisting  a  hated  enemy,  from  whose  hands 
many  of  them  had  received  the  deepest  insult. 

We  saw  nothing  of  the  enemy,  but  heard  the  dis- 
tant sound  of  battle ;  and  some  carts  bore  a  few  badlv 
wounded  men  past  us.  We  were  engaged  in  the  work 
of  digging  trenches  and  making  emplacements  for 
guns  until  the  20th,  being  assisted  during  this  time 
by  the  peasantry :  and  fighting  went  on  continuously 
at  the  front.  I  was  anxious  to  see  something  of  it, 
but  loth  to  leave  the  side  of  Lofe,  owing  to  the  diffi- 
culty I  had  in  making  myself  understood  by  strang- 
ers ;  and  after  my  dispute  with  the  officer  at  Pultusk 
I  was  a  little  nervous,  being  afraid  I  might  be  seized 
and  sent  away. 

Lofe  was  a  very  amiable  fellow  and  I  got  on  well 
with  him,  as  I  did  with  all  the  Russians  with  whom 
I  became  well  acquainted.  Life  in  the  trenches  was 
not  to  our  taste.  We  applied  for  permission  to  go 
down  to  the  front  to  vsdtness  the  fighting,  but  it  was 


122       AN  ENGLISHMAN  IN  THE  RUSSIAN  RANKS 

refused.  So  we  had  to  remain  where  we  were  and 
elaborate  our  defences.  How  many  hundreds  of 
miles  of  wire  we  used  in  our  entanglements  I  should 
not  like  to  guess ;  but  if  the  Germans  had  ever  reached 
them,  I  think  they  would  have  left  a  good  many  dead 
in  front  of  them.  With  the  barbed  wire  "  crow- 
nets,"  as  we  called  them,  we  intermixed  a  great  many 
staked  pits,  and  other  amiable  devices  for  shortening 
the  days  of  our  enemies. 

The  battle  was  clearly  for  the  possession  of  War- 
saw ;  and  more  than  once  rumours  reached  us  that  the 
foe  had  carried  the  city  at  the  point  of  the  bayonet ; 
but  I  do  not  think  they  ever  got  within  sight  of  any 
part  of  it,  though  many  of  their  newspapers  claim 
that  they  did,  and  even  occupied  its  suburbs.  The 
last-named  claim  was  evidently  false;  but  the  place 
had  a  narrow  escape  of  falling.  The  fight  seems  to 
have  worn  itself  out;  or  the  Germans  fell  back:  for 
all  was  quiet  on  the  21st,  though  neither  side  had  ob- 
tained a  victory. 

This  was  too  frequently  the  sequence  to  a  prolonged 
fight  or  series  of  fights.  The  opposing  force  seemed 
to  get  tired  out,  and  a  lull  ensued,  during  which  one 
would  scarcely  hear  a  stray  rifle  shot.  On  the  21st, 
however,  some  of  our  troops  at  the  front  captured  a 
German  band!  It  consisted  of  about  forty  musi- 
cians, though  they  said  there  had  been  eighty  of  them 
when  they  first  came  to  the  front.  Asked  to  give  us 
some  music  they  played  willingly  enough,  and  very 
well.  The  Russian  regiments  have  bands,  but  I 
heard  and  saw  very  little  of  them  during  this  war; 


THE  FIGHTING  ON  THE  VISTULA  123 

they  seemed  to  have  been  sent  to  the  rear  to  attend 
to  wounded  men.  Some  of  the  Siberian  regiments, 
and  the  foot  Cossacks,  have  dancing  men  vs^ho  march 
at  the  head  of  the  battalions,  and  dance,  sing,  and 
clash  cymbals,  when  moving  from  place  to  place. 

It  is  hardly  necessary  to  record  that  the  Germans 
made  desperate  attempts  to  cross  the  river  during  the 
fighting  referred  to  just  now.  I  did  not  actually 
witness  any  of  the  fighting  at  this  stage,  but  I  know 
that  it  all  failed.  I  was  told  that  they  tried  to  pon- 
toon the  stream  at  a  place  called  Viegrod,  abreast  of 
Garvolin  station.  The  pontoons  were  smashed  ta 
pieces,  and  several  hundreds  of  the  enemy  drowned. 
Small  detachments  got  over  at  various  places,  some  in 
boats,  others  by  means  of  flying  bridges;  but  they 
were  all  destroyed  or  captured.  They  did  not  suc- 
ceed in  forcing  any  of  the  permanent  bridges,  which 
were  defended  by  tetes-de-pont.  The  Russians 
claimed  that  they  completely  wiped  out  some  of  these 
detachments.  I  saw  bodies  lying  together  within 
very  narrow  spaces  of  ground ;  and  I  have  no  doubt 
that  the  peasantry  avenged  themselves  by  killing  the 
wounded:  and  I  know  that  the  Russian  infantry 
bayoneted  every  man  of  one  detachment  of  about  300. 
Still  a  good  many  prisoners  were  taken,  and  sent  by 
train  to  Warsaw. 

The  Germans  used  some  aeroplanes  for  observa- 
tion work ;  but  on  being  fired  at  these  machines  went 
out  of  range  and  kept  there.  It  would  have  been  a 
great  advantage  to  the  Russians  to  have  had  some  of 
these  things;  but  that  they  had  few,  or  none,  in  this 


124       AN  ENGLISHMAN  IN  THE  RUSSIAN  RANKS 

part  of  the  field,  shows  that  air-craft  cannot  materi- 
ally affect  a  foe  who  is  without  them.  No  doubt 
aeroplanes  have  done  splendid  work  for  the  Allies, 
and  inflicted  serious  losses  on  the  enemy;  but  they 
do  not  often  seem  to  be  able  to  face  an  army  in  the 
field. 

It  may  give  some  idea  of  what  is  meant  by  "  cas- 
ualties "  if  I  mention  that  about  40,000  recovered 
wounded  rejoined  the  Russian  Army  while  we  were 
on  the  line  of  the  Vistula.  So  a  heavy  list  of  losses 
does  not  necessarily  mean  that  a  vast  number  of  men 
are  permanently  disabled  from  taking  part  in  their 
country's  services.  Recoveries,  too,  are  very  rapid 
when  the  men  are  attended  by  good  surgeons  and 
good  nurses. 

I  obtained  one  glimpse  of  the  enemy's  position. 
ISTot  a  German  was  to  be  seen;  but  puffs  of  smoke 
showed  where  their  guns  were  placed.  Smokeless 
powder  was  used  by  both  sides  for  their  rifle  cart- 
ridges ;  but  not  for  artillery ;  or  at  any  rate,  it  was 
not  efficacious  when  fired  from  heavy  guns. 

Both  sides  entrenched  themselves,  according  to  re- 
ports, for  a  distance  of  more  than  300  versts.  Af- 
terwards I  heard  that  trenches  and  earth-works  were 
made  along  the  whole  of  the  German  and  Austrian 
frontiers,  a  result  of  both  sides  finding  it  impossible 
to  make  any  material  headway  into  each  other's  ter- 
ritory. The  battle  degenerated  into  an  artillery  en- 
gagement. The  Russians  brought  up  some  heavy 
guns  of  about  6-inch  calibre,  and  a  few  that  were  a 
little  larger,  and  with  these  bombarded  the  German 


THE  FIGHTING  ON  THE  VISTUIuA  125 

positions.  The  enemy,  on  their  part,  were  similarly 
provided ;  and  so  the  see-saw  went  on  —  banging  at 
each  other  without  noticeable  results.  Generally 
speaking,  an  artillery  duel  is  the  tamest  of  all  kinds 
of  fighting  from  a  spectator's  point  of  view.  The 
only  time  when  it  becomes  a  little  lively  is  when  a 
shell  happens  to  drop  just  behind  one.  It  usually 
causes  a  sudden  start  forward,  or  an  Eastern  posi- 
tion of  adoration,  which  is  by  far  the  safest  to  as- 
sume. The  wonderful  "  Jack  Johnsons,"  of  which 
I  have  heard  and  read  so  much,  were  not  used  by  the 
Germans  in  this  region,  though  the  nickname  seems 
to  have  been  given  to  any  large  shell.  The  "  Jack 
Johnsons,"  however,  were  huge  shells  which  appeared 
to  have  weighed  from  1,600  to  2,000  pounds  each, 
when  charged.  It  was  useless  waste  to  fire  them 
against  anything  but  forts,  and  I  much  doubt  if  the 
Germans  used  them  for  any  other  purpose.  The 
guns,  being  howitzers,  could  fire  about  100  of  these 
before  needing  retubing:  so  the  shooting-power  of 
the  huge  weapons  was  limited.  Every  shot  must 
have  cost  about  £200,  and  it  is  not  likely  that  the 
Germans  would  waste  them  by  shooting  at  trenches 
and  small  parties,  where  the  effect  would  be  com- 
paratively of  little  moment.  Very  high  explosives 
were  used  by  the  Germans,  and  some  of  their  pro- 
jectiles made  very  large  holes  in  the  ground. 

Watching  the  firing,  I  could  not  perceive  that  ours 
was  doing  much  harm;  while  that  of  the  enemy  cer- 
tainly was  not.  Occasionally  a  few  yards  of  our 
trenches  was  blown  in,  and  a  man  or  two  destroyed; 


126       AN  ENGLISHMAN  IN  THE  RUSSIAN  RANKS 

but  the  impression  left  on  my  mind  was  that  trench 
warfare  would  go  on  for  ever,  unless  some  more  ef- 
fective force  than  mere  artillery  fire  were  brought  to 
bear  on  an  army  so  protected :  and  shelling  a  position 
is  a  very  expensive  mode  of  warfare.  I  afterwards 
saw  that  to  destroy  a  hundred  yards  of  trench  cost 
4,000  or  5,000  shells;  and  even  then  the  defending 
force  nearly  always  contrived  to  make  good  a  retreat 
to  a  second,  or  third,  line  of  defence.  To  shell  an 
enemy  out  of  a  good  defensive  position  is,  I  believe, 
an  impossibility;  therefore  permanent  fortresses 
should  be  constructed  on  the  lines  of  a  system  of 
trenches,  the  guns  being  placed  in  Moncrieff  pits  or 
other  specially  constructed  emplacements.  I  am 
quite  convinced  that  unless  guns  are  hidden,  their 
destruction  is  assured.  Modern  gunfire  is  as  ac- 
curate as  that  of  rifle-shooting:  it  will,  therefore, 
easily  hit  any  mark  which  the  gunners  can  locate. 

Everybody  knows  that  patience  is  a  virtue,  and 
that  it  generally  obtains  a  reward.  Our  turn  came. 
The  40th  Siberians,  better  known  to  the  men  by  an 
unpronounceable  name,  which,  never  having  seen  it 
in  print,  I  cannot  pretend  to  spell,  were  ordered  to 
cross  the  Vistula  on  the  morning  of  the  20th  October. 

I  expected  that  there  would  have  been  some  fight- 
ing; but  there  was  not.  The  rain  was  falling  in  a 
steady  downpour ;  and  we  could  not  see  the  opposite 
bank  of  the  river.  Perhaps  the  wet  damped  the 
ardour  of  the  Germans.  Certainly  I  should  think 
that  the  autumn  and  winter  of  1914-15  was  the  wet- 
test ever  known.     The  right  bank  of  the  river  was 


THE  FIGHTING  ON  THE  VISTULA  127 

bad  enough,  but  the  left  was  the  softest  marsh  we  had 
so  far  experienced.  No  wonder  the  Germans  could 
no  longer  make  much  resistance :  their  trenches  were 
full  of  water.  I  slipped  into  one,  and  thought  I  was 
going  to  be  drowned.  Fortunately  for  me  a  couple 
of  the  men  stopped  to  assist  me;  for  there  was  six 
or  seven  feet  of  water  in  the  wretched  trench.  Many 
of  our  men  met  with  similar  accidents,  and  I  am  not 
sure  that  some  of  them  did  not  lose  their  lives.  I 
saw  the  bodies  of  Germans  floating  in  their  ditches, 
but  these  may  have  been  men  killed  previously  to  the 
flooding. 

It  was  entirely  an  infantry  fight.  We  had  crossed 
the  river  on  rafts  towed  by  boats,  and  could  bring  no 
guns;  while  those  of  the  enemy  which  could  be 
moved  they  were  anxiously  striving  to  save,  and  did 
not  stop  to  fire.  Many  of  their  heavy  guns  they  de- 
stroyed to  render  them  useless  to  us,  but  a  number 
of  machine-guns  were  brought  into  action  on  each 
side. 

For  many  miles  the  left  bank  of  the  Vistula  is  a 
deep  morass,  with  extensive  woods,  and  a  few  scat- 
tered houses  and  hamlets.  The  inhabitants  of  these 
were  all  gone,  fled  or  murdered ;  and  the  Germans  had 
pierced  the  walls  of  their  homes  with  loopholes,  and 
piled  the  furniture,  carts  and  farm  implements  to- 
gether to  form  barricades.  They  failed,  however,  to 
stop  our  advance.  Position  after  position  was  car- 
ried, sometimes  by  a  withering  rifle-fire,  sometimes  at 
the  point  of  the  bayonet.  Brave  as  he  is,  the  Ger- 
man soldier  is  not  ashamed  to  plead  abjectly  for  his 


128       AN  ENGLISHMAN  IN  THE  RUSSIAN  RANKS 

life  when  he  is  driven  into  a  corner.  I  saw  men 
clinging  to  the  bayonets  that  were  about  to  terminate 
their  existences;  and  many  actually  screamed  for 
mercy.  It  was  not  much  use  making  such  petitions ; 
the  women  and  old  men  who  had  been  driven  in,  leav- 
ing a  toll  of  murdered  behind,  had  stories  to  tell  which 
inflamed  the  fiercest  passions  of  the  soldiers.  I  con- 
trived to  save  the  lives  of  one  or  two  of  these  wretched 
Germans ;  but  my  own  safety  required  that  I  should 
not  interfere  too  strenuously ;  and  though,  I  hope,  I 
should  not  fear  to  give  my  life  in  a  just  cause,  or  to 
save  a  just  person,  I  was  not  prepared  to  throw  it 
away  on  behalf  of  ravishers  and  child-stabbers. 

In  this  fight  I  crossed  swords  with  a  German  of- 
ficer of  the  2/94th  regiment  (probably  Landwehr), 
a  portly  gentleman  who  thought  fit  to  finish  the  en- 
counter by  an  unconditional  surrender.  He  took  ad- 
vantage of  my  remissness  in  watching  him,  and  tried 
to  escape  back  to  his  own  men.  Some  of  our  fellows 
noticed  this,  and  —  well,  he  had  not  time  to  suffer 
much.  Dishonourable  acts,  and  breaches  of  word, 
1  were  very  common  amongst  the  Germans ;  but  it  often 
got  severely  punished. 

The  enemy  suffered  most,  I  heard,  at  places  called 
Sandomir  and  Kozyniece.  The  latter  place  is  close 
to  Ivangorod,  which  was,  for  some  days,  our  head- 
quarters, and  the  centre  of  our  line.  Further  north, 
near  Bloni,  and  Vishgo,  and  at  ITovogeorgievsk,  they 
suffered  more  severely,  and  gave  way  sooner.  By 
the  evening  of  the  21st  they  were  retiring  at  many 
places  along  the  entire  linej  but  at  some  spots  they 


THE  FIGHTING  ON  THE  VISTULA  129 

stood  firm  with  remarkable  tenacity,  and  suffered 
themselves  to  be  almost  surrounded. 

We  passed  the  night  in  a  hamlet  of  a  dozen  houses 
which  had  been  defended  by  a  company  of  jagers 
(riflemen).  Only  forty-eight  of  them  survived  our 
attack  with  the  bayonet;  and  these  we  captured. 
They  slept  in  the  same  rooms  with  their  captors^ 
played  cards  with  them,  and  sang  jovial-sounding 
songs,  apparently  quite  unmoved  by  the  fact  that  120 
dead  bodies  of  their  comrades  lay  in  the  gardens  and 
courtyards  outside.  Both  the  Germans  and  Russians 
are  great  card-players  and  inveterate  gamblers. 

In  the  morning,  before  it  was  daylight,  we  made 
our  prisoners  dig  graves  and  bury  the  dead  — 129 
of  theirs,  sixty-two  of  ours :  we  then  sent  them  to  the 
rear  under  an  escort,  while  we  advanced  towards 
Chinlin,  and  began  skirmishing  with  the  enemy,  who 
were  only  600  or  700  yards  in  front  of  us. 

Both  sides  took  shelter  behind  pine-trees ;  and  very 
little  execution  was  done,  though  the  firing  went  on 
nearly  all  day.  At  last  the  Germans  took  post  in  a 
thick  wood,  and  it  became  clear  they  had  been  play- 
ing with  us  all  these  hours  while  their  sappers  placed 
this  copse  in  a  state  of  defence.  The  discovery  was 
rather  humiliating;  but  these  things  occur  in  war, 
and  it  was  not  the  only  occasion  on  which  our  cun- 
ning opponents  "  came  the  old  soldier  "  over  their 
denser,  slow-thinking  foes.  But  in  spite  of  their 
shmess  they  were  beaten.  Some  Russian  battalions 
got  behind  the  wood,  and  its  defenders  were  compelled 
to  run  for  their  lives.     They  ran  very  well,  but  most 


130       AN  ENGLISHMAN  IN  THE  RUSSIAN  RANKS 

of  them  were  captured;  and  we  passed  the  second 
night  in  the  nice,  nest-like  little  hovels  they  had  pre- 
pared for  their  own  accommodation. 

The  German  dearly  loves  his  comfort  and  good 
cheer.  They  never  seemed  to  be  short  of  food,  and 
we  took  carts  laden  with  wine  that  had  been  made  in 
France  and  must  have  been  sent  hither  at  much 
trouble  and  expense  only  to  find  its  way  down  Rus- 
sian throats  in  spite  of  the  Czar's  teetotal  proclama- 
tion. I  think  the  German  troops  must  be  taught  to 
make  bivouacks  and  huts,  they  are  such  adepts  at 
the  work ;  and  render  their  dens  so  comfortable  by  a 
hundred  little  devices  that  show  they  have  previously 
studied  the  art  of  adapting  everything  to  their  own 
welfare  and  ease.  Needless  to  say,  the  plunder  of 
houses  and  cottages  was  utilized  for  furnishing  these 
temporary  abodes. 

There  was  now  no  doubt  that  the  Germans  were 
retreating;  but  they  were  doing  so  in  that  leisurely 
way  which  indicated  that  their  retirement  was  any- 
thing but  a  rout;  and  I  foresaw  that  it  would  not 
be  long  before  they  turned  again  with  renewed  feroc- 
ity. I  do  not  think  that  the  troops  we  had  been 
opposed  to  were  some  of  the  best  that  Germany  could 
put  in  the  field.  In  some  battalions  there  did  not 
appear  to  be  a  man  under  forty  years  of  age:  in 
others  they  were  all  boys :  and  these  last  named  were 
amongst  the  best  fighters.  I  passed  over  ground 
strewn  with  the  dead  of  one  of  these  battalions,  and 
not  a  lad  of  them  seemed  to  be  much  over  twenty 
years ;  some  were  not  more  than  sixteen  or  seventeen. 


THE  FIGHTING  ON  THE  VISTULA  131 

Many  stories  were  brought  to  us  of  what  had  taken 
place  in  other  districts.  All  agreed  that  the  Germans 
had  not  succeeded  in  entering  Warsaw;  but  it  was 
reported  that  a  fleet  of  aeroplanes  had  sailed  over 
the  city  and  dropped  bombs.  Only  private  houses 
had  been  wrecked;  not  much  damage  done,  and  the 
''  hostile  aircraft "  had  soon  been  driven  away.  As 
nothing  was  said  about  the  bringing  down  of  any  of 
these  aeroplanes,  I  felt  pretty  sure  that  they  had  all 
escaped  the  Russian  fire.  The  Germans  had  not  left 
much  for  them  to  destroy  in  their  retreat ;  and  I  never 
learned  from  whence  they  had  come,  or  whither  they 
went  when  they  had  completed  their  fell  work.  We 
saw  nothing  of  them  in  our  district. 

On  the  23rd  we  still  continued  to  follow  the  enemy, 
keeping  in  touch  with  them,  and  exchanging  shots. 
About  the  middle  of  the  day  we  were  joined  by  a  large 
force  of  artillery  and  cavalry.  Where  these  troops 
came  from  I  cannot  tell.  They  were  a  welcome  re- 
inforcement; but  as  we  were  moving  through  a 
wooded  country  they  could  not  make  much  impression 
on  the  enemy,  except  when  the  latter  attempted  to 
make  a  stand.  The  trees  were  mostly  pines,  and 
the  ground  beneath  them  free  of  undergrowth;  and 
the  destruction  of  them,  after  a  few  hours'  cannon- 
ade, was  enormous.  Whole  forests  looked  as  if  they 
had  been  blighted,  or  blasted  by  lightning. 

The  German  jagers  often  took  post  in  the  trees,  as 
affording  a  favourable  place  for  marksmanship ;  but 
when  our  gunners  discovered  them  we  had  an  extra- 
ordinary sight  as  a  small  crowd  of  arms  and  legs 


132       AN  ENGLISHMAN  IN  THE  RUSSIAN  RANKS 

came  tumbling  through  the  air  in  every  imaginable 
position.  Those  of  the  men  who  were  not  killed  by 
the  shrapnel  usually  lost  their  lives  by  the  shock  of 
the  fall.  Sometimes  big  trees  were  snapped  clean 
in  two  when  the  shell  had  made  a  direct  hit  before 
bursting.  More  generally  the  branches  were  ripped 
to  shreds  by  the  flying  shower  of  bullets.  I  saw  the 
dead  body  of  one  rifleman  lodged  amongst  the  boughs 
of  a  large  pine.  He  must  have  been  killed  instantly, 
for  he  was  still  clasping  his  rifle  in  his  hands. 

There  were  some  painful  scenes.  "We  came  across 
a  fine,  handsome  young  fellow  raving  over  the  body 
of  another  boy.  It  was  ascertained  that  they  were 
brothers,  and,  "  What  will  mother  do  ?  This  will 
kill  her,"  was  all  he  could  say.  I  never  saw  a  man 
more  grief -stricken.  A  few  hours  afterwards  we 
found  a  man  shot  through  the  body.  Blood  was  bub- 
bling from  his  mouth  and  nose,  and  he  was  dying 
fast;  but  he  had  struggled  to  his  knees,  and  leaning 
against  a  tree-trunk  was  praying  —  not  for  himself, 
but  for  his  wife  and  four  little  children.  By  chance 
I  discovered  that  this  man  could  speak  English.  He 
had  been  a  clerk  in  Liverpool.  He  was  distressingly 
anxious  about  his  family,  and  begged  we  would  not 
destroy  a  letter  addressed  to  his  wife  which  he  had 
in  his  pocket.  "  For,"  he  said,  "  I  knew  I  should 
not  come  through  this  "  —  the  war,  I  suppose,  he 
meant. 

I  assured  him  that  nothing  found  upon  him  should 
be  disturbed,  and  that  the  letter  should  be  sent  to  the 
German  commander  on  the  first  opportunity.     We 


THE  FIGHTING  ON  THE  VISTULA  133 

did  what  we  could  to  relieve  his  suffering,  and  sent 
a  man  back  for  the  Red  Cross  men  who  were  follow- 
ing behind ;  but  the  poor  fellow  died  before  they  ar- 
rived.    War  is  a  curse. 

The  rain  ceased  only  for  a  few  hours  at  a  time.  It 
generally  commenced  to  fall  as  evening  came  on,  and 
continued  to  pour  down  steadily  the  greater  part  of 
the  night.  Sometimes  it  rained  night  and  day  with- 
out cessation,  and  the  thickest  overcoats  became  sat- 
urated with  wet.  I  made  a  kind  of  cloak  from  the 
remains  of  a  rick-cloth  which  I  found  in  the  outhouse 
of  a  burnt  farm ;  and  this  was  a  great  protection. 

The  country  we  were  passing  through  was  deserted. 
The  Polish  peasantry  are  very  poor,  and  what  would 
become  of  the  miserable  people,  who,  like  the  Irish 
of  a  former  day,  depended  on  their  pigs,  fowls  and 
potato-crops,  it  was  painful  to  think.  We  supposed 
they  had  fled  to  the  towns ;  but  every  now  and  then 
we  came  across  the  bodies  of  some  of  them,  and  it  is 
certain  that  hundreds  had  been  wantonly  destroyed 
by  their  cruel  enemies. 

For  many  miles  we  marched  through  a  flooded 
country,  and  passed  the  Pilica  Eiver  by  means  of  a 
bridge  which  was  partly  under  water,  the  reason,  per- 
haps, that  the  Prussians  missed  it.  We  were  guided 
to  it  by  an  old  peasant  who  had  been  in  hiding ;  but 
the  banks  of  the  river  were  quite  hidden  under  water, 
and  on  this  account  many  of  our  men,  as  well  as  Ger- 
mans, floundered  into  it  and  were  drowned.  Horses 
and  waggons  were  swept  away,  and  some  guns  cap- 
tured.    Our  own  guns  were  forced  to  go  higher  up 


134       AN  ENGLISHMAN  IN  THE  RUSSIAN  RANKS 

the  stream  and  were,  I  believe,  passed  over  a  pontoon 
bridge.  Hundreds  of  Cossacks  swam  their  horses 
across,  and  gathered  up  some  prisoners.  They  sent 
a  far  greater  number  to  their  long  account,  and 
seized  an  immense  booty  in  food,  stores,  etc.  For 
the  Germans  always  stripped  the  country  they  passed 
through  of  everything  that  was  worth  carrying  away. 
That  which  was  too  cumbersome  to  be  moved  they 
destroyed. 

I  never  actually  heard  who  commanded  the  Ger- 
mans, or  our  own  force.  At  one  time  rumour  as- 
serted that  the  Kaiser  himself  was  chief  of  our  ene- 
mies, and  was  personally  directing  their  movements. 
When  this  surmise  exploded,  we  were  repeatedly  told 
that  the  Crown  Prince  was  the  Commander-in-Chief. 
All  that  was  known  with  certainty  was  that  we  were 
immediately  opposed,  for  a  week  at  least,  by  a  divis- 
ional coromander  named  Swartzenberg.  On  our  own 
side  Major  Beke  was  the  battalion  commander  under 
whom  I  served.  He  was  killed  soon  after  we  crossed 
the  Vistula,  and  was  succeeded  by  an  officer  who  was 
wounded  and  sent  to  the  rear  on  the  same  day  he  was 
appointed.  His  successor  only  held  the  command 
two  days  when  he  was  blinded  by  a  piece  of  wood 
driven  into  his  face  by  the  explosion  of  a  shell. 
Krischelcamsk  then  became  our  leader.  Colonel 
Tunreshka  was  the  regimental  commandant.  He 
disappeared  the  night  after  we  crossed  the  Pilica. 
The  general  opinion  was  that  he  was  drovnied  in  the 
river ;  but  he  may  have  been  taken  prisoner. 

One  reason  of  the  unusually  rapid  retreat  of  the 


THE  FIGHTING  ON  THE  VISTULA  135 

Germans  on  this  occasion  was  that  thej  had  expended 
nearly  all  their  ammunition,  and  were  unable  to 
bring  up  more  on  account  of  the  dreadful  state  of 
the  country  —  knee-deep  in  mud,  and  covered  with 
water.  It  is  an  ill  wind  that  blows  nobody  any  good ; 
and  the  rain,  which  hampered  the  Kussian  on  one 
hand,  helped  to  save  Warsaw  on  the  other. 

We  reached  Skyermevice  on  the  24th.  It  is  a  tovra. 
of  some  size,  and  the  people  had  not  abandoned  it. 
They  crowded  the  streets  to  see  us  pass  through,  and 
loudly  cheered  us.  Flags  sprang  from  somewhere, 
and  decorated  all  the  windows  and  shop  doors;  and 
the  women  brought  us  food  and  drink,  which  had 
been  hid  away.  The  inhabitants  of  the  town  had 
suffered  a  good  deal,  and  had  been  compelled,  as 
usual  when  the  Germans  occupied  a  place,  to  pay  a 
heavy  war-tax,  or  fine.  A  number  of  the  principal 
men  had  been  dragged  away  as  hostages;  I  never 
learned  their  fate.  Everywhere  the  Germans  be- 
haved like  a  band  of  brigands  and  murderers.  One 
instance  of  their  paltry-mindedness  may  be  recorded. 
At  a  house  where  Captain  Lofe  and  I  spent  the  night, 
and  from  which  some  billeted  Germans  had  run  away 
on  our  approach,  these  miserable  creatures  had  killed 
the  little  girl's  canary,  and  she  was  inconsolable  for 
the  loss  of  her  pet.  It  was  not  the  only  occasion  on 
which  birds,  cats  and  pet  dogs  were  wantonly  and 
cruelly  destroyed  to  vex  their  owners. 

On  the  25th  while  we  were  marching  towards  Low- 
vitz  we  encountered  a  Prussian  battalion  which  had 
been  driven  towards  us  by  three  sotnias  of  Cossacks, 


136       AN  ENGLISHMAN  IN  THE  RUSSIAN  RANKS 

They  could  not  escape,  and  we  charged  them  with 
the  bayonet.  I  must  give  them  the  credit  due  to 
them:  on  this  occasion  the  Germans  fought  well  and 
determinedly.  But  our  men  had  become  very  expert 
in  the  use  of  the  bayonet,  and  when  the  enemy  had 
lost  half  their  number  the  remainder  broke  and  fled. 
The  Cossacks  were  waiting  for  them,  and  I  do  not 
think  that  any  of  them  escaped.  No  prisoners  were 
taken :  and  this  often  happened  during  the  campaign. 
Both  sides  were  equally  guilty  of  this  cruelty  —  if 
cruelty  it  was.  But  really  the  Germans  were  so 
fiendishly  brutal,  that,  as  I  have  previously  said,  I 
think  reprisals  were  justifiably  resorted  to.  Be  this 
so  or  not,  and  whatever  may  be  thought  of  the  act,  it 
is  certain  that,  on  many  occasions,  bodies  of  both 
Germans  and  Russians  were  exterminated  when  they 
had  the  mischance  to  become  isolated  and  surrounded. 
There  was  a  great  deal  of  bayonet  work  during  this 
campaign.  It  is  a  favourite  weapon  of  the  Rus- 
sians ;  and  proportionately  disliked  by  the  Germans. 
The  bayonet  of  the  Russian  soldier  is  never  unfixed, 
except  for  cleaning  purposes.  He  marches  with  it, 
eats,  works  and  sleeps  with  it  always  ready  for  instant 
action.  The  German  soldier  is  not  so  particular; 
and  I  saw  more  dirty  weapons  amongst  our  prison- 
ers than  I  ever  thought  existed  in  any  army  in  the 
world.  Wounds  from  German  bayonets  are  pe- 
culiarly fatal,  as  the  backs  of  them  are  serrated  to 
enable  them  to  be  used  as  cutting  implements.  For 
this  reason  the  soldier  often  has  great  difficulty  in 
withdrawing  his  weapon  after  stabbing  a  victim :  and 


THE  FIGHTING  ON  THE  VISTULA  137 

we  found  that  in  some  cases,  where  the  point  of  the 
bayonet  was  forced  through  the  body  and  embedded 
in  the  backbone,  it  had  been  unfixed  and  left  sticking 
in  the  wound. 

As  we  approached  the  Prussian  frontier  the  Ger- 
man resistance  became  sterner,  and  they  made  more 
frequent  attempts  to  rally.  As  I  have  said,  their 
retreat  never  assumed  the  character  of  a  rout  —  very 
far  from  it.  Only  straggling  or  isolated  parties 
ever  fell  into  disorder.  Their  retirement  was  steady 
and  orderly  as  far  as  their  military  movements  were 
concerned;  but  in  the  towns  and  villages  they  be- 
haved like  beasts.  We  had  plenty  of  evidence  that 
nearly  all  their  junior  officers,  and  thousands  of  their 
men,  never  lost  an  opportunity  of  getting  drunk. 
The  Kaiser  was  said  to  be  a  teetotaler:  the  Crown. 
Prince  was  often  as  drunk  as  a  lord  —  a  German 
lord;  and  it  is  said  that  when  in  this  condition  he 
beat  his  wife  so  badly  that  she  left  the  palace,  and 
took  refuge  in  the  house  of  a  nobleman.  The  story 
was  told  on  excellent  authority;  otherwise  I  should 
not  run  the  risk  of  being  thought  a  gossip-monger  by 
repeating  it.  I  have,  myself,  seen  the  man  in  the 
company  of  courtesans;  and,  apparently,  under  the 
influence  of  drink. 

Though  the  Germans  made  attempts  to  beat  back 
our  pursuit,  and  to  some  extent  checked  it,  they 
could  not  altogether  stop  it ;  and  I  think  the  gradual 
slackening  of  our  endeavours  to  beat  them  quite  out 
of  Poland  was  the  outcome  of  the  men's  exhaustion. 

The  country  was  in  a  terrible  state.     The  Germans 


138       AN  ENGLISHMAN  IN  THE  RUSSIAN  RANKS 

had  no  time  or  opportunity  to  bury  many  of  their 
dead,  and  the  whole  district,  for  hundreds  of  miles, 
was  strewn  with  the  bodies  of  men  and  horses,  some- 
times half  covered  by  water,  often  floating  in  it. 
Though  the  weather  was  changing,  and  becoming 
colder,  especially  at  night-time,  portions  of  the  days 
were  hot,  close,  or  muggy.  Consequently  the  corpses 
soon  began  to  decay,  and  the  whole  land  stank  re- 
voltingly;  and  the  men  kept  their  pipes  constantly 
alight  to  counteract  the  offensiveness.  Owing  to  the 
state  of  the  ground  it  was  scarcely  possible  to  bury 
many  of  these  bodies,  and  they  were  left  to  rot  away 
where  they  lay,  or  floated.  Our  own  dead  were  con- 
veyed to  the  cemeteries  and  burying-grounds ;  but 
the  people  would  not  tolerate  the  desecrating  Ger- 
mans in  "  God's  acre."  Amongst  the  enemy's  dead 
were  some  Austrians,  showing  that  the  troops  of  their 
nation  had  been  engaged  in  this  region. 

On  the  afternoon  of  the  26th  we  came  to  a  stand- 
still near  the  Eiver  Warta.  The  headquarters  of 
the  40th  were  at  a  small  village  the  name  of  which  I 
never  clearly  heard.  Very  few  people  were  left  in 
it;  but  others  arrived  when  they  heard  that  it  was 
in  our  hands.  All  those  who  had  most  to  fear  from 
the  enemy  (that  is,  all  those  who  possessed  a  rouble's 
worth  of  property)  had  been  in  hiding  in  the  woods, 
where  some  of  them  had  been  living  in  underground 
burrows  wherever  they  could  find  a  spot  dry  enough 
to  construct  them  in. 

Of  the  40th  not  800  effectives  remained;  and  as 
the  regiment  had  commenced  the  war  with  a  strength 


THE  FIGHTING  ON  THE  VISTULA  139 

of  4,000  men,  it  will  be  seen  how  terribly  it  had 
suffered.  I  heard  the  band  of  the  regiment  for  the 
first  time  in  our  bivouac  on  the  26th.  It  consisted 
of  twenty-seven  musicians:  three  months  previously 
there  had  been  eighty  of  them.  They  had  been  under 
fire  many  times,  collecting  and  assisting  the  wounded, 
the  chief  work  of  the  bandsmen  during  fighting. 
The  Eussian  bands  of  music,  like  the  Prussian,  are 
much  stronger  than  ours,  and  are  formed  on  German, 
lines,  as  far  as  numbers  and  instruments  are  con- 
cerned. I  cannot  give  much  praise  to  their  style  of 
playing. 

On  the  27th  and  28th  the  enemy  appeared  to  be 
massing  on  our  front,  and  the  regiment  was  ordered 
to  fall  back  towards  Lodz.  We  were  halted  again  on 
the  29th,  and  joined  by  the  Preobujensky  regiment, 
at  nearly  full  strength,  and  the  Troizki  rifle  battal- 
ion. With  them  came  a  battery  of  eight  field  gims, 
which  had  been  got  through  the  marshes  in  our  rear. 

It  would  seem  that  our  regiment,  and  a  body  of 
Cossacks,  had  been  pushed  too  far  to  the  front,  and 
had  to  be  drawn  back.  As  far  as  I  could  understand 
the  position,  the  Russian  troops  formed  a  crescent 
with  the  horns  at,  or  near,  Radom  and  Lowicz.  Be- 
yond these  points  the  lines  continued  for  hundreds 
of  versts,  right  and  left,  but  were,  more  or  less, 
thrown  back.  It  was  very  difficult  to  learn  the  exact 
position,  because  the  enemy  so  frequently  regained 
the  ground  he  had  lost  only  a  few  hours  previously. 
The  Russians  showed  great  bravery  and  considerable 
dash ;  but  they  did  not  carry  things  before  them  quite 


140       AN  ENGLISHMAN  IN  THE  RUSSIAN  RANKS 

SO  rapidly  or  decisively  as  they  sometimes  claimed  to 
have  done.  In  the  fighting  described  in  these  Octo- 
ber days,  the  Germans  got  very  much  the  worst  of  it. 
I  am  not  sure  that  it  would  be  safe  to  say  much  more 
than  this.  Their  losses  were  heavy,  and  their  re- 
treat beyond  a  doubt;  but  it  is  ridiculous  to  talk  of 
routs,  as  some  newspapers  seem  to  have  done.  I  did 
not  see  these  accounts  until  after  my  return  to  Eng- 
land ;  and  I  have  not  read  very  many  of  them.  I  am 
afraid  a  good  deal  of  error  was  fallen  into  by  a  too 
ready  acceptance  of  first  accounts. 

I  would  also  note  that  owing  to  the  immense  ex- 
tension of  the  fronts  of  the  two  armies,  a  victory  in 
one  place  was  often  quite  independent  of  operations 
going  on  at  a  distance  on  either  flank,  and  often  led 
to  a  dangerous  advance,  exposing  the  wings  of  the 
victorious  force:  and  I  am  surprised  that  neither 
side  seems  to  have,  on  any  occasion,  taken  advantage 
of  these  too  rapid  advances  and  pursuits. 


CHAPTEE  XI 

THE    EETKEAT    OF    THE    GERMANS    FEOMI 
THE    VISTULA 

As  is  usual  after  severe  fighting,  a  lull  supervened; 
and  we  remained  quiet  in  camp  for  some  days, 
"  Camp,"  I  say.  It  was  almost  the  first  time  since  I 
had  been  with  the  Kussian  Army  that  I  had  slept  in 
a  tent ;  but  the  time  was  coming  when  men  could  no 
longer  spend  night  after  night  bivouacked  in  the 
open  air.  Already  the  weather  was  becoming  chilly, 
and  often  very  cold  after  sunset.  There  was  less 
rain;  but  it  still  fell  long  and  steadily  at  intervals, 
and  sometimes  for  a  whole  day  without  a  break. 

About  1,900  recruits  joined  our  regiment;  and 
many  other  units  had  their  terrible  losses  made  good ; 
indeed,  I  heard  that  between  600,000  and  700,000 
reservists  and  others  joined  the  armies  on  the  Ger- 
man and  Austrian  frontiers;  and  yet  they  were  not 
brought  up  to  their  full  establishments;  a  telling 
revelation  of  the  fearful  losses  that  had  been  sus- 
tained ;  although  according  to  Prussian  accounts,  they 
had  taken  nearly  a  quarter  of  a  million  of  prisoners 
from  us.  I  am  satisfied  that  they  captured  a  good 
many :  as  we  also  had  done. 

^November  came  upon  us  in  a  typical  way  —  damp 
and  foggy,  so  that  it  was  impossible  to  see  the  face 

141 


142       AN  ENGLISHMAN  IN  THE  RUSSIAN  RANKS 

of  the  country.     As  surprises  are  peculiarly  liable 
to  be  attempted  in  such  weather,  we  were  much  har- 
assed by  outpost  work;  at  least  five  times  the  usual 
number  of  men  being  engaged  on  this  duty.     For- 
tunately we  had  a  large  body  of  Cossacks ;  and  these 
rascals  are  never  surprised ;  and  no  kind  of  experience 
comes  amiss  to  them,  so  long  as  they  have  a  chance 
of  plunder  and  rapine.     That  is  the  truth,  and  it  may 
as  well  be  told.     During  the  ^November  fogs  they 
caught  a  good  many  German  patrols,  who  were  at- 
tempting to  play  the  game  of  hide-and-seek;  and  very 
few  prisoners  were  made.     Many  of  the  Russian 
troops  were  becoming  fierce-tempered ;  and  none  more 
so  than  the  Cossacks.     One  of  these  men  displayed  a 
bag  full  of  watches  and  rings  which  he  had  taken 
from  slain  Prussian  officers.     He  was  reported  to 
have  slain  more  than  fifty  of  the  enemy  with  his  ovra. 
sword  and  lance ;  and  he  was  notorious  for  spearing 
wounded  men  as  he  rode  over  the  battlefield,  such 
crimes,  and  plundering,  not  being  punished  as  they 
are  in  most  armies  —  the  German  excepted,  where 
murder  and  theft  are  rewarded  with  iron  crosses,  and 
commendation  from  commanding  officers.     But  these 
Cossacks  are  very  useful  fellows;  they  fairly  fright- 
ened our  enemies ;  and  in  this  way  probably  saved  us 
from  a  good  deal  of  trouble  and  loss :  and  they  cer- 
tainly always  hampered  the  movements  of  the  foe 
much  more  than  regular  cavalry  could  have  done. 
Probably  they  sometimes  saved  us  from  disaster. 

For  it  leaked  out  that,  in  our  recent  advance  to 
the  Warta,  we  actually  had  a  large  force  of  Germans 


RETREAT  OF  GERMANS  FROM  THE  VISTULA       143 

on  our  rear :  and  it  is  more  than  likely  that  the  Cos- 
sacks had  the  principal  share  in  driving  them  back 
from  several  impending  attacks,  of  which  we  knew 
nothing  at  the  time ;  and  which  would  probably  have 
ended  in  our  making  the  acquaintanceship  of  a  Prus- 
sian prison ;  or  a  still  narrower  place  of  confinement. 

The  rain  ceased  for  a  time,  and  both  sides  con- 
tinued to  entrench  themselves,  the  Germans  in  front 
of  us  being  not  more  than  a  mile  distant,  with  their 
advanced  posts  much  closer.  They  had  contrived 
to  get  up  heavy  gTms ;  and  there  was  a  good  deal  of 
artillery  shooting  every  day,  which  blew  in  trenches, 
destroyed  wire-entanglements,  and  did  lots  of  other 
damage,  but  did  not  kill  many  men.  Sometimes  an 
enormous  shell  blew  a  poor  fellow  to  pieces,  some- 
times wiped  out  half-a-dozen  at  once;  but  I  do  not 
think  we  lost  more  than  a  score  a  day  all  along  the 
line.  The  freaks  played  by  shells  were  sometimes 
extraordinary.  One  went  just  over  the  head  of  an 
officer,  killed  a  boy  who  was  standing  behind  him, 
went  over  the  head  of  another  man,  and  then 
sprang  high  into  the  air  before  exploding.  It 
is  as  impossible  to  give  a  probable  explanation  f 
of  such  strange  action,  as  it  is  to  say  why  a  frag- 
ment of  shell  bursting  fifty  yards  away  should 
kill  three  men,  while  one  exploding  right  in  the  midst 
of  a  group  of  twenty  gunners  should  leave  them 
all  unscathed.  It  is  the  law  of  chance  —  if  chance 
has  laws. 

I  should  also  mention  (though  I  did  not  learn  the 
circumstances  until  some  time  afterwards)  that  the 


144       AN  ENGLISHMAN  IN  THE  RUSSIAN  RANKS 

Germans  had  fortified  several  villages  and  towns  on 
the  left  bank  of  the  Vistula,  with  first,  second  and 
third  lines  of  defence  j  and  that  the  Eussians,  unable 
to  take  these  in  their  general  advance,  had  masked 
them,  and  left  them  on  their  rear.  The  garrisons 
could  not  have  been  strong  enough  to  take  advantage 
of  this  circumstance;  but  it  does  not  seem  to  be  so 
dangerous  to  leave  fortresses  behind  in  these  latter 
days  of  the  strange  development  of  war,  as  it  formerly 
was. 

Having  little  to  do  we  amused  ourselves,  and  one 
another,  by  repeating,  and  studying,  the  various  ru- 
mours and  bits  of  news  we  heard.  Russian  newspa- 
pers, of  course,  and  a  good  many  German  ones, 
reached  our  trenches;  and  a  few  French  publica- 
tions ;  but  I  never  saw  an  English  paper  of  any  kind. 
Those  we  obtained  were  generally  illustrated;  but 
the  pictures,  as  far  as  they  related  to  the  Russian  seat 
of  war,  were  mere  inventions ;  and  I  am  afraid  the 
same  remark  must  be  made  with  regard  to  the  news ; 
though  some  of  the  papers  had  a  fairly  good  notion 
of  the  general  progress  of  events.  It  was  when  they 
came  to  details  that  their  novelists  got  to  work. 

The  unimpeachable  items  of  news  that  were  of 
most  interest  to  us  were  that  the  Grand  Duke  Nicolas 
-was  directing  the  operations  against  Przemysl,  and 
that  the  fall  of  that  important  place  was  imminent. 
It  seems,  however,  that  the  celebrated  fortress  proved 
a  tougher  nut  to  crack  than  it  was  generally  thought 
it  would  be.  Personally,  I  am  of  opinion  that  the 
Hussians  went  the  wrong  way  to  work  in  invading 


RETREAT  OF  GERMANS  FROM  THE  VISTULA       145 

Austria;  and  Silesia,  not  Galicia,  should  have  been 
their  first  objective.  I  need  not  enter  into  details, 
or  reasons,  here,  because  I  am  at  variance  with  most 
critics  on  the  conduct  of  the  whole  war.  There  are 
people  who  would  think  it  presumptuous  on  my  part 
to  presume  to  think  differently  from  the  conductors 
of  the  Eussian,  French  and  English  forces :  but  I  do 
think  differently  from  them:  and  whatever  the  ulti- 
mate issues  of  this  gigantic  war,  the  most  titanic  the 
world  has  seen,  I  do  not  hesitate  to  say  that  not  one 
of  the  contending  parties  has  produced  a  really  great 
General  —  a  I^apoleon,  or  a  Moltke.  At  the  moment 
of  writing  this  paragraph  the  war  has  lasted  nine 
months;  and  during  that  time  it  has  simply  been  a 
game  of  see-saw,  a  swaying  backwards  and  forwards,, 
without  one  decisive,  or  even  very  important,  action 
on  any  side.  The  war  might  easily  have  been  ended 
by  this  time :  if  it  is  allowed  to  degenerate  into  a  war 
of  trenches  it  will  end  when  the  Germans  have  spent 
all  their  money,  and  not  sooner. 

On  the  5th  November  we  suddenly  received  orders 
to  occupy  again  the  line  of  the  Warta.  We  advanced 
by  forced  marches,  finding  that  the  Germans  had 
abandoned  their  trenches  during  the  night ;  and  they 
were  reported  by  our  Cossacks  to  be  drawing  oft'  in  the 
direction  of  Kutno,  evidently  with  the  intention  of 
falling  back  on  Thorn,  distant  about  four  marches. 

The  next  day  we  learned  that  there  had  been  sharp 
fighting  on  the  Prussian  frontier  near  the  often-men- 
tioned town  of  Kalisz;  and  that  the  Russian  troops 
had  entered  German  territory.     They  were  also  said 


146        AN  ENGLISHMAN  IN  THE  RUSSIAN  RANKS 

to  have  invaded  Prussia  in  the  north,  at  Virballen; 
not  far  from  which  place  I  had  seen  some  heavy 
fighting,  as  narrated  in  a  previous  chapter.  What  I 
subsequently  saw  and  heard  led  me  to  entertain  some 
uncertainty  as  to  the  extent  and  actuality  of  these 
important  claims.  I  do  not  know,  but  I  think  it  is 
probable,  that  these  actions  were  little  more  than  Cos- 
sack raids.  Villages  and  railway-stations  were  burnt, 
and  the  lines  destroyed  in  places.  The  results  were 
not  permanent,  and  it  seems  likely  that  the  Germans 
gave  gTOund  for  the  time,  because  they  thought  it 
necessary  to  withdraw  at  least  three  corps  to  put 
against  their  French  and  British  opponents. 

There  must  be  considerable  monotony  in  describing 
such  a  war  as  this  I  am  treating  of.  To  a  great  ex- 
tent land-fighting,  like  naval  encounters,  has  lost  its 
picturesqueness,  and  has  become  little  more  than  a 
disgusting  slaughter.  A  good  deal  of  the  action  is 
similar  to  the  fighting  of  rats  in  a  ditch.  Trench 
warfare  is  horrible,  with  its  villainous  grenades  and 
bombs,  which  are  quite  different  from  these  devices 
in  former  days,  and  are  no  better  than  tools  in  the 
hands  of  a  butcher.  It  is  useless  to  argue  that  a 
bomb  is  a  bomb,  and  that  it  cannot  matter  whether 
a  man  is  blown  to  pieces  by  one  of  the  ancient,  or  one 
of  the  modern,  type.  It  does  matter  a  good  deal  — 
to  the  survivors,  at  any  rate.  The  effect  of  modern 
shell-fire  is  hellish,  its  destructiveness  is  so  great,  its 
effects  on  its  victims  so  awful,  compared  with  any- 
thing of  the  kind  that  was  formerly  in  vogue.  Where 
one  man  died  formerly  from  artillery  fire,  500  go 


RETREAT  OF  GERMANS  FROM  THE  VISTULA       147 

down  now ;  and  nearly  all  of  them  are  mutilated  most 
horribly. 

The  advance  of  the  Russians  seems  to  have  shown 
the  Germans  that  they  made  a  mistake  in  withdraw- 
ing troops  from  their  Eastern  frontiers.     They  came 
'  rushing   back   to   Poland   from    somewhere,    either 
France  and  Belgium,  or  the  interior  of  Germany. 
On  the  8th  November  they  were  still  in  great  force  to 
the  north  of  the  Warta ;  and  our  cavalry  reported  that 
they  were  receiving  strong  reinforcements  via  Brom- 
berg  and  Thorn.     Afterwards  I  found  that  this  infor- 
mation was  correct  in  most  of  its  details ;  but  it  must 
be  remembered  that  I  laboured  in  great  disadvantage 
and  difficulties,  especially  in  obtaining  information 
from  places  far  distant  from  the  spot  where  I  hap- 
pened to  be  at  any  given  time.     I  frequently  applied 
for  permission  to  go  on  scouting  parties,  or  to  join 
the  Cossacks  in  their  raids;  but  this  was  not  often 
given  to  me,  or  very  willingly  conceded  on  the  few 
occasions  when  I  was  successful  in  obtaining  it.     I 
cannot  tell  why.     The  very  few  newspaper  corres- 
pondents I  met  with  did  not  seem  to  have  much  more 
liberty  of  action  than  I  had :  and  when  they  learned 
that  I  was  not  a  correspondent  they  gave  me  but 
scant  aid,  if  any  at  all. 

I  did  not  come  much  in  contact  with  the  com- 
manding officers  of  my  division,  and  was  unfortunate 
in  the  fact  that  many  of  those  that  I  became  most 
friendly  with  were  speedily  killed,  or  wounded  and 
sent  back.  At  this  time  an  officer  named  Martel  was 
in  temporary  command  of  the  division,  Major-Gen- 


148       AN  ENGLISHMAN  IN  THE  RUSSIAN  RANKS 

eral  Alexis  Sporowsky  having  been  taken  prisoner, 
and  his  immediate  successor  killed.  General  Martel 
was  one  of  the  best  officers  I  served  "under,  and  he 
willingly  gave  me  permission  to  join  a  cavalry  recon- 
naissance in  force  which  was  made  by  four  dragoon 
and  hussar  regiments,  and  six  sotnias  of  Cossacks. 

We  proceeded  in  the  direction  of  Choczi,  and  met 
the  enemy  about  sixteen  versts  west  of  that  town, 
which  is  situated  on  the  frontier  line.  They  con- 
sisted of  two  regiments  of  cuirassiers  (without  their 
cuirasses)  and  two  of  Uhlans.  None  of  these  regi- 
ments were  of  the  same  numerical  strength  as  ours. 
I  put  the  German  force  at  1,800  men,  and  six  light 
guns.  The  Russians  had  3,000,  but  no  gims:  and 
soon  after  we  came  into  action  we  discovered  that 
the  enemy  was  covering  a  battalion  of  jagers  (rifle- 
men) :  so  really  they  were  much  the  stronger  party. 

The  Cossacks  spread  themselves  out  like  a  fan,  a 
movement  which  is  as  old  as  the  force  itself,  and  was 
used  with  great  effect  against  the  troops  of  I^apoleon 
Buonaparte  in  1812.  They  then  rushed  in  on  the 
jagers,  and,  though  suffering  severely,  occupied  the 
attention  of  those  men,  while  we  tackled  the  dragoons 
and  the  guns.  The  latter  did  not  do  so  very  much 
execution,  but  the  cuirassiers,  big,  heavy  men,  broke 
through  our  dragoons,  who  are  classed  as  light  cav- 
alry. The  Germans,  however,  are  not  good  swords- 
men, as  I  have  previously  stated,  and  while  they 
were  in  some  disorder,  occasioned  by  the  shock  of 
their  first  charge,  our  hussars  got  amongst  them  and 
sabred  them  right  and  left  in  fine  style.     I  can  say 


RETREAT  OF  GERMANS  FROM  THE  VISTULA      149 

that  the  edge  of  the  sword  was  mostly  used,  not  the 
point :  while  the  Germans  did  use  the  point  most,  a 
mistake  in  cavalry  actions,  as  it  often  leads  to  the 
trooper  breaking  his  weapon,  or  losing  it  through 
being  unable  to  withdraw  it  after  stabbing  an  enemy ; 
besides,  a  "  point  "  is  easily  parried,  and  is  intended 
to  be  mostly  used  against  men  lying  on  the  ground, 
or  against  infantry. 

The  Uhlans  remained  in  support  of  the  guns,  an- 
other mistake  of  theirs:  for  before  they  could  come 
to  the  rescue  of  the  cuirassiers  our  dragoons  had  ral- 
lied, and  met  them  in  a  charge  that  badly  routed 
them.  They  fled  right  off  the  field,  leaving  behind 
about  200  of  their  number  in  killed,  wounded  and 
prisoners.  The  Cossacks  were  equally  successful. 
They  nearly  annihilated  the  jagers,  and  the  six  guns 
fell  into  our  hands.  The  cuirassiers,  too,  were  nearly 
all  destroyed:  for  on  account  of  their  weight  they 
could  not  escape  from  our  light  horsemen;  the  Cos- 
sacks, in  particular,  showing  them  no  mercy.  Man 
for  man  the  German  cavalry  are  inferior  to  the  Rus- 
sian troopers,  chiefly  because  they  are  bad  swords- 
men, and  are  lacking  of  that  enterprise  and  dash 
which  are  essential  to  the  making  of  good  troopers. 

The  guns  could  not  be  taken  with  us,  and  we  were 
afraid  to  send  them  to  the  rear  lest  they  should  be 
recaptured:  so  they  were  destroyed  by  smashing  the 
breech-blocks  and  exploding  charges  of  gun-cotton 
in  the  muzzles.     The  caissons,  also,  were  blown  up. 

The  remnant  of  the  enemy  were  pursued  until  our 
horses  were  too  much  exhausted  to  follow  them  fur- 


150       AN  ENGLISHMAN  IN  THE  RUSSIAN  RANKS 

ther,  which  was  not  until  we  had  crossed  the  German 
border.  Those  of  the  jagers  who  were  not  destroyed 
surrendered  as  prisoners;  but  most  of  them  after- 
wards escaped.  Altogether  this  was  a  brilliant  af- 
fair. It  cost  the  enemy  more  than  1,000  men ;  with 
a  loss  on  our  side  of  between  300  and  400.  We  lost 
150  horses,  but  we  captured  400  of  those  of  the  en- 
emy, without  counting  the  artillery  draught  teams. 
We  rode  some  distance  into  Germany,  giving  the 
people  a  cruel  lesson  in  war  in  retaliation  of  the 
wickedness  of  their  own  fiendish  troops.  I  was  sorry 
for  them :  but  really  I  do  not  see  how  the  sin  of  war- 
fare is  to  be  stamped  out,  unless  we  make  it  so  dread- 
ful that  the  people  of  a  land  will  no  longer  tolerate 
it  —  the  policy,  I  believe,  of  one  of  their  own  hard- 
hearted statesmen :  and  I  imagine  the  people  of  East 
Prussia  will  not  be  anxious  to  see  the  Cossacks  again. 
They  came  upon  the  miserable  people  fresh  from 
sights  they  ought  never  to  have  seen,  and  fierce  with 
an  anger  that  ought  not  to  have  been  provoked. 
Those  that  sow  the  wind  reap  the  whirlwind. 

On  the  9th  and  10th  we  were  in  contact  with  a 
weak  force  of  the  enemy's  infantry,  supported  by  two 
or  three  batteries  and  some  remnants  of  cavalry  regi- 
ments. The  batteries  had  been  a  good  deal  knocked 
about,  and  had  not  their  full  complement  of  guns,  un- 
less two  batteries  were  split  up  into  three,  for  the 
purpose  of  deceiving  us.  As  they  did  not  fire  we 
guessed  they  had  no  ammunition  left.  Skirmishing 
went  on,  but  was  productive  of  no  material  results. 
Some  prisoners  who  fell  into  our  hands  were  without 


RETREAT  OF  GERMANS  FROM  THE  VISTULA       151 

boots,  and  had  been  marching  with  bare  feet :  the  uni- 
forms of  others  were  very  ragged.  But  on  the  11th 
we  were  opposed  by  fresh  troops,  well  clothed,  and 
evidently  well  fed;  and  it  became  clear  that  rein- 
forcements were  arriving  with  food  and  supplies. 
Such  a  force  of  artillery  opened  fire  on  us  that  we 
were  compelled  to  fall  back  rather  hastily,  and  we 
took  advantage  of  the  smoke  of  some  burning  houses 
to  cover  our  retreat.  As  we  passed  near  these  houses 
some  civilians  shot  at  us  with  fowling-pieces  from 
the  windows  of  a  large  building,  and  blinded  a  Cos- 
sack. His  comrades  dismounted,  stormed  the  house, 
and  hanged  the  men  to  telegraph-posts.  There  was 
a  painful  scene  when  their  women  interfered  to  pre- 
vent the  execution;  and  one  man  fought  desperately 
for  his  life;  while  the  screaming  of  children  added 
to  the  horror  of  the  surroundings.  Only  the  men 
were  punished :  it  was  one  of  the  dreadful,  but  nec- 
essary, acts  of  war.  No  troops  in  the  world  would 
tolerate  to  be  fired  on  under  such  circumstances. 
The  Cossack  died  a  lingering  death. 

We  drew  out  of  range  of  the  infantry  with  slight 
loss;  some  of  our  men,  who  had  their  horses  killed, 
running  by  the  side  of  their  comrades,  and  occa- 
sionally, in  moments  of  great  danger,  riding  behind 
them;  but  most  of  these  men  were  ultimately  taken 
prisoners.  Two  squadrons  of  the  enemy's  hussars 
had  the  temerity  to  charge  our  rearguard.  The  Cos- 
sacks made  sad  work  of  them;  especially  as  they 
thought  they  could  not  be  burdened  with  prisoners 
during  their  retreat.     Some  three  or  four  of  these 


152      AN  ENGLISHMAN  IN  THE  RUSSIAN  RANKS 

hussars  and  their  horses  were  knocked  over  by  a  shell 
from  one  of  their  own  guns  —  I  presume  accidentally. 

When  we  had  got  out  of  range  of  gun  and  rifle  we 
retired  more  slowly,  meeting  hundreds  of  people 
fleeing  towards  the  interior  of  the  country,  evidently 
in  fear  of  a  general  invasion  by  the  Russians.  They 
were  driving  all  sorts  of  conveyances,  from  motors 
to  dog-carts:  the  latter  kind  of  vehicle,  illegal  in 
England,  being  very  common  in  Russia  and  Ger- 
many; and,  I  think,  in  all  Continental  countries. 
These  people  were  carrying  what  goods  they  thought 
they  could  save ;  but  some  of  them  got  overhauled  by 
the  Cossacks,  and  would  have  done  better  to  have  re- 
mained at  home,  where,  generally,  they  were  not 
much  interfered  with. 

Before  we  got  back  to  the  Warta  we  were  joined  by 
some  more  Cossacks,  and  other  cavalry,  who  had  been 
reconnoitring  in  the  direction  of  Poweedtz  and  Pio- 
trikow :  and  I  may  here  say  generally  that  I  obtained 
pretty  clear  information  that  the  Russians  nowhere 
penetrated  German  territory  more  than  from  ten  to 
twenty,  or  at  most  twenty-five,  versts.  Sorry  I  am 
that  I  cannot  make  a  better  report.  I  saw  clearly 
enough  that  a  revulsion,  if  not  a  reverse,  was  impend- 
ing. Where  the  enemy's  troops  came  from  I  cannot 
always  certainly  tell ;  but  come  they  did.  Probably 
a  strong  contingent  was  sent  from  Belgium  and 
!N"orth-West  France ;  and  still  more  probably  the  bulk 
of  the  reinforcements  were  newly  embodied  troops. 
It  must  be  remembered  that  nearly  every  man  in 
Germany  is  a  well-trained  soldier;  therefore  it  is 


RETREAT  OF  GERMANS  FROM  THE  VISTULA       153 

easy  to  raise  new  armies  from  the  civilian  element. 

Unfortunately,  at  this  interesting  moment  I  was 
put  out  of  action  for  a  month.  On  the  morning  of 
the  16th  November  I  was  struck  in  the  back  by  a  piece 
of  shell  fired  at  our  position  on  the  Warta,  and  was 
sent  into  hospital  at  Warsaw.  I  was  much  vexed  at 
the  accident;  but  as  I  could  not  stand,  a  temporary 
absence  from  the  front  was  inevitable. 

At  the  time  I  was  incapacitated  the  Germans  had 
at  least  partially  reoccupied  the  country  west  of  the 
,Warta,  though  not,  perhaps,  in  force.  We  were  not 
there  in  any  great  numbers  ourselves,  and  kept  a  posi- 
tion further  to  the  north  than  formerly.  Both  sides 
were  again  entrenching  themselves. 

My  life  in  the  hospital  was  a  very  monotonous  one, 
as  I  could  not  maintain  a  conversation  with  any- 
body. About  300  badly  wounded  men  lay  in  a  build- 
ing which  seemed  to  have  been  a  school,  or  public 
institution.  There  were  only  three  or  four  doctors 
and  about  twenty  attendants  to  look  after  this  lot,  and 
the  nurses  seemed  to  be  nuns.  They  were  most  kind 
and  attentive,  but  too  few  in  number,  as  nearly  all 
the  cases  were  those  of  desperately  injured  men,  an 
average  of  nine  or  ten  dying  every  day.  Their  beds 
were  immediately  occupied  by  fresh  arrivals,  prob- 
ably brought  from  temporary  resting-places.  The 
sights  and  sounds  were  of  the  most  depressing  de- 
scription, especially  when  relatives  or  friends  were 
present  to  receive  the  last  sighs  of  expiring  men. 

My  servant  Chouraski  was  not  with  me  when  I  was 
struck  down,  and  possibly  did  not  know  what  had 


154       AN  ENGLISHMAN  IN  THE  RUSSIAN  RANKS 

become  of  me,  or  whetlier  I  was  killed  or  taken  pris- 
oner. I  was  not  taken  back  to  my  billet,  eight  versts 
from  the  spot  where  I  was  hurt,  but  was  sent  on  at 
once  to  Warsaw  in  an  ambulance.  I  never  saw 
Chouraski  again,  or  heard  what  had  become  of  him : 
indeed,  I  met  very  few  old  friends  when  I  returned 
to  the  front. 

Semi-starvation,  and  a  strenuous  life  in  the  open 
air,  are  good  preparations  for  hard  knocks.  'No  bones 
being  broken,  nor  other  serious  hurts  incurred,  my 
wounds  healed  rapidly;  and  in  three  weeks  I  could 
get  up  and  lend  a  hand  to  less  fortunate  comrades. 
By  this  time  I  could  speak  a  few  words  of  Russian, 
sufficient  to  make  my  wants  known ;  and  the  medical 
men  spoke  French.  The  nuns,  however,  did  not  seem 
to  be  so  well  educated  as  their  class  usually  is  in 
other  countries. 

However,  I  could  make  it  understood  that  I  wished 
to  be  discharged  at  the  earliest  possible  moment,  and 
in  spite  of  the  persuasions  of  the  doctors,  I  left  on 
the  18th  December,  having  obtained  a  permit  from 
the  commandant  to  return  to  the  front.  I  was  still 
rather  weak,  and  was  disappointed  in  my  endeavours 
to  obtain  a  horse ;  but  had  very  little  money  left.  In 
the  first  instance  I  went,  with  twenty  other  recovered 
wounded,  belonging  to  a  dozen  different  corps,  to 
Lovicz,  there  to  await  orders. 


CHAPTEK  XII 

AN    INFANTEY    EECONNAISSAISrCE 

Once  more  I  must  refer  to  Germany's  railways.  A 
line  runs  parallel  with  the  entire  borderland  at  an 
average  distance  of  about  twenty  versts  —  that  is, 
one  day's  march  for  an  army.  This  parallel  line  is 
connected  with  a  highly  elaborated  railway  system, 
extending  to  every  part  of  the  German  Empire :  and 
there  are  scores  of  short  lines,  running  to  towns  on 
the  actual  frontier,  where  they  terminate;  with  the 
very  few  exceptions  where  they  run  on  into  Eussia. 
Of  course,  these  short  lines  have  a  commercial  im- 
portance; but  their  real  value  to  Germany  is  that 
they  permit  a  fighting  battle-line  to  be  rapidly  rein- 
forced at  many  points  simultaneously.  The  Rus- 
sians never  successfully  passed  this  parallel  border 
railway :  that  is,  they  never  held  it  in  force,  and  for  a 
considerable  distance.  It  had,  for  Germany,  a  pre- 
cisely similar  value  as  a  defensive  line  that  the  Vis- 
tula had  for  Warsaw  and  the  interior  of  Russia.  The 
railway-line  stopped  the  Russian  advance,  as  the 
Vistula  did  that  of  the  Germans,  yet  in  different 
ways.  The  actual  railway  could  not  stop  the  Rus- 
sians; but  the  power  of  concentration  it  gave  her 
opponents  did.  On  the  other  hand,  the  River  Vis- 
tula did  stop  the  Germans.  They  could  not  force  it, 
strongly  held  as  it  was  by  the  Muscovite  troops  and 

i55 


156       AN  ENGLISHMAN  IN  THE  RUSSIAN  RANKS 

their  heavy  artillery.  The  contributary  streams, 
with  their  deep,  steep  banks^  also  hindered  the  attack, 
and  greatly  assisted  the  defence. 

When  I  reached  Lovicz  I  found  the  state  of  affairs 
much  what  it  had  been  two  months  previously,  when 
the  Russians  were  defending  the  course  of  the  great 
river  against  the  Germans  entrenched  on  the  ground 
between  it  and  the  Pilica.  What  extent  of  country 
was  now  reoccupied  by  the  enemy  I  had  no  means  of 
learning  with  much  exactitude;  but  it  was  certain 
that  they  were  again  on  the  left  bank  of  the  Vistula, 
on  the  Pilica:  and  were  renewing  their  determined 
efforts  to  reach  Warsaw.  Lovicz  was  threatened; 
but  as  this  place  is  a  railway  junction,  and  of  great 
importance  to  Russia,  preparations  were  in  progress 
to  defend  the  place  as  long  as  possible. 

I  was  in  something  of  a  predicament.  At  Lovicz 
I  could  find  nobody  who  knew  me.  The  40th  Sibe- 
rian regiment  was  said  to  be  now  in  front  of  Prze- 
mysl;  and  the  Cossacks  with  whom  I  had  been  most 
frequently  in  contact  were  departed,  nobody  knew 
whither.  I  could  not  see  my  way  to  trying  to  rejoin 
the  40th ;  but  it  was  necessary  that  I  should  have  some 
sort  of  official  recognition,  as  it  was  contrary  to  regu- 
lation to  have  loiterers  about  camp,  to  say  nothing  of 
the  danger  one  would  run  of  being  thought  a  spy  and 
being  dealt  with  accordingly.  My  friends,  the  Cos- 
sacks, would  probably  put  a  wrong  interpretation, 
upon  my  inability  to  give  prompt  and  clear  answers 
in  their  mother-tongue ;  and  I  should  have  a  similar 
difficulty  with  any  officer  who  should  happen  to  in- 


AN  INFANTRY  RECONNAISSANCE  15T' 

terrogate  me,  besides  running  the  risk  of  trouble  witb 
any  civil  officials  I  might  chance  to  meet. 

So  I  began  to  look  about  me.     I  had  papers,  testi- 
monials and  a  permit.     How  could  I  utilize  these  ? 

Among  the  comrades  with  whom  I  had  returned 
to  the  front  was  an  officer  of  the  Tomski  regiment. 
I  applied  to  him,  and  he  introduced  me  to  a  Staff 
Captain  named  Muller.     Muller,  as  we  all  know,  is 
a  very  common  German  name;  but  many  Russians 
are  of  German  stock.     Muller,  in  spite  of  his  name, 
■was  a  thorough  Eussian:  and  he  stated  my  case  to 
another  Staff  Officer,  Colonel  Simmelchok,  who  pro- 
posed that  I  should  apply  for  recognition  as  a  news- 
paper   correspondent.     The    difficulty    was    that    I 
could  not  name  any  paper  to  which  I  was  a  contribu- 
tor, or  potential  contributor.     Finally,  the  General 
commanding  the  troops  at  Lovicz  was  applied  to. 
Having  expressed  the  opinion  that  I  had  better  go- 
home,  he  refused  to  give  me  permission  to  join  any 
Russian  corps,  and  said  that  if  I  remained  at  head- 
quarters I  must  do  so  at  my  ovm  risk.     In  view  of 
the   excellent   recommendations   which    I    possessed 
from  several  Russian  commanders  he  would  not  pos- 
itively order  my  departure:  and  in  view  of  my  ig- 
norance of  the  Russian  language,  he  could  not  ad- 
vise that  I  should  be  given  a  commission  in  any  Rus- 
sian unit.     I  might  enlist  as  a  private  if  I  liked. 

I  saw  at  once  that  if  I  enlisted  in  a  Russian  regi- 
ment, my  liberty  of  action  would  be  stopped  immedi- 
ately; and  I  should  see  no  more  of  the  war  than 
what  the  tip  of  my  own  bayonet  coidd  show:  and  I 


158       AN  ENGLISHMAN  IN  THE  RUSSIAN  RANKS 

had  serious  tliouglits  of  departing,  and  trying  some 
other  commander.  Colonel  Simmelchok  came  to  the 
rescue.  I  might  remain  at  my  own  risk.  Very 
well :  Colonel  Krastnovitz,  commanding  the  2nd  bat- 
v  talion  of  the  Vladimir  regiment  was  a  friend  of  his, 
;  and  would  make  me  a  member  of  their  mess,  i^oth- 
ing  could  have  met  my  views  better,  except  a  remit- 
tance of  ready  cash :  but  I  was  generously  told  that  I 
need  not  trouble  my  head  about  that :  we  were  soldiers 
on  campaign,  and  would  mostly  enjoy  campaign  fare 
only;  and  so  it  proved.  For  we  had  few  luxuries, 
except  an  occasional  fowl,  or  duck,  obtained  from 
the  country-people,  a  batch  of  eggs  or  a  joint  of  pork. 
We  never  ran  short  of  tobacco;  but  wine  was  almosli 
unknown  in  the  mess. 

There  was  a  very  decided  change  in  the  weather. 
The  mud  had  disappeared  and  the  ground  was  frozen 
hard:  the  trees  sparkled  with  frost  particles,  and 
the  ground  was  coated,  every  morning,  with  rime. 
The  air  was  "  shrewd  and  biting,"  and  we  had  some 
boisterous  north  winds  which  chilled  me  to  the  mar- 
row. Meanwhile  desperate  fighting  was  going  on, 
and  the  Russians  seemed  to  be  giving  ground  in  sev- 
eral places.  The  ground  was  becoming  so  hard  that 
trench-making  became  difficult,  and  a  good  deal  of 
the  fighting  was  in  the  open  under  old-fashioned  con- 
ditions: the  losses,  therefore,  were  exceptionally 
heavy,  especially  in  killed  and  wounded.  More  pris- 
oners are  taken  in  trench  warfare  than  in  any  other 
form  of  military  action  owing  to  the  fact  that  if  the 
men  do  not  escape  before  an  assault. takes  place  they 


AN  INFANTRY  RECONNAISSANCE  159* 

have  no  chance  of  doing  so  when  the  enemy  is  actually 
amongst  them.  The  broad  hind-quarters  of  a  Deutch- 
man  crawling  over  the  crest  of  a  trench  affords  a  re- 
markably fine  butt  for  a  bayonet  thrust:  and  Huns 
usually  prefer  surrender  to  cold  steel. 

For  several  days  we  were  left  in  doubt  of  what 
was  taking  place  in  our  neighbourhood,  though  daily 
glowing  accounts  reached  us  of  the  progress  of  Rus- 
sian arms  in  the  Austrian  area  of  the  war.  The  gen- 
eral impression  seemed  to  be  that  matters  were  not 
going  on  so  well  in  the  West  Polish  district  as  they 
should  be. 

On  the  20th  we  made  a  night  march  to  a  village, 
the  name  of  which  did  not  transpire.  It  was  de- 
serted, with  the  exception  perhaps  of  a  dozen  miser- 
able starving  creatures,  and  had  been  partly  burnt 
down.  We  arrived  about  four  o'clock  in  the  morn- 
ing, at  which  time  it  had  been  snowing  heavily  for 
two  hours. 

We  remained  hiding  in  the  village  all  day,  fires  and 
even  smoking  being  strictly  forbidden.  There  were 
about  800  of  us:  and  I  do  not  know  if  there  were 
other  infantry  detachments  near  us,  but  I  heard  from 
the  Colonel  that  a  force  of  Cossacks  was  reconnoitring 
some  eight  or  nine  versts  in  front  of  us;  and  we 
could  hear  the  distant  booming  of  heavy  guns,  a  sure 
sign  that  the  contending  parties  were  in  contact,  as 
artillery  do  not  fire  at  nothing. 

The  greater  part  of  the  day  snow  was  falling,  and 
though  it  cleared  up  in  the  evening  it  was  only  for  a 
few  hours.     We  had  brought  three  days'  rations  in 


160       AN  ENGLISHMAN  IN  THE  RUSSIAN  RANKS 

our  haversacks.  The  food  consisted  of  biscuit,  and 
fat  boiled  mutton,  which  is  excellent  diet  for  march- 
ing men.  Our  drink  was  water  only,  which  we  had 
to  procure  where  we  could  find  it ;  not  an  easy  task, 
'  as  the  rivers  were  full  of  putrid  bodies  and  carcasses 
of  horses,  and  the  Germans  had  polluted  many  of 
the  wells. 

On  the  21st  we  made  another  night  march  over  an 
open  plain  on  which  were  many  small  pine- woods. 
"We  kept  under  cover  as  much  as  possible,  and  finally 
Jialted  in  a  pine-wood,  where  we  hid  ourselves  all 
day,  not  seeing  a  soul  of  any  kind.  In  the  afternoon 
a  Cossack  arrived,  and  delivered  a  written  message 
to  the  Colonel,  the  contents  of  which  he  did  not  di- 
Tulge;  but  at  night  he  called  for  a  dozen  volunteers 
who,  he  said,  must  be  men  of  enterprise,  not  afraid 
to  sacrifice  themselves  if  necessary.  These  men  were 
placed  under  the  command  of  a  young  officer.  Captain 
Folstoffle,  and  proceeded  along  the  bed  of  a  frozen 
brook,  our  feet  being  muffled  with  pieces  of  sheep's 
skin.  N'aturally  I  supposed  that  we  were  near  the 
enemy;  but  Folstoffle  spoke  not  a  word  of  either 
French  or  English,  and  no  communication  of  any 
kind  was  made  to  me  or  to  the  men :  we  were  left  to 
glean  information  from  the  "  march  of  events." 

The  booming  of  the  guns  continued,  at  intervals,  all 
night,  and  to  the  north-west  the  sky  was  crimson  with 
the  reflection  of  a  large  fire  —  a  burning  town,  I  im- 
agined. The  only  sign  of  life  I  saw  was  a  large  ani- 
mal (a  wild  boar,  I  think),  which  rushed  out  of  the 
cover  of  some  rushes  when  disturbed  by  our  approach.. 


AN  INFANTRY  RECONNAISSANCE  161 

The  "whole  country  was  covered  with  snow,  which 
was  loose,  and  about  a  foot  deep.  This  was  a  draw- 
back, as  we  must  have  shown  up  darkly  to  an  enemy : 
at  the  same  time  it  increased  our  chances  of  seeing 
the  approach  of  persons  or  soldiers,  not  clothed  in 
white,  though  this  hue  was  often  used  by  the  Ger- 
mans to  conceal  themselves  when  the  country  was 
snow-clad.  We  had  left  our  bivouac  at  about  nine 
o'clock,  and  marched  on  until  2  a.m.,  when  Folstoffle 
decided  to  halt  for  a  rest.  The  spot  chosen  for  this 
purpose  was  a  clump  of  bushes  with  a  small  two- 
storied  farm-house  about  300  yards  distant.  It  was 
necessary  to  examine  this  house,  and  I  volunteered 
for  the  service,  making  myself  understood  by  signs 
and  the  few  words  of  Russian  I  was  now  master  of. 
I  started  alone,  but  one  of  the  men  followed  close 
behind  me,  holding  his  rifle  at  the  "  Present,"  ready 
to  fire  instantly  if  need  should  require  it,  though  it 
seemed  improbable  that  any  of  the  enemy  were  in 
the  house.  As  we  approached,  however,  I  was  as- 
tonished to  see  a  man  hanging  out  of  one  of  the  win- 
dows, and  another  leaning  over  him  from  behind. 
Both  were  partly  covered  with  snow,  and  it  hardly  > 
required  more  than  a  glance  to  show  that  they  were 
dead.  A  few  yards  nearer,  and  I  could  see  that 
their  clothing  was  in  tatters,  and  fluttering  in  the 
night  breeze. 

The  weather  had  cleared  up,  and  was  now  bright ; 
and  the  reflection  from  the  snow  enabled  one  to  see 
objects  with  considerable  distinctness,  though  some 
distance  away ;  and  I  noticed  several  curious-looking 


162       AN  ENGLISHMAN  IN  THE  RUSSIAN  RANKS 

heaps,  or  mounds,  near  the  house,  from  which  a  hor- 
rible stink  emanated,  as  it  did  from  the  building 
itself. 

The  place  had  been  subjected  to  a  bombardment; 
all  the  windows  were  smashed  out,  and  one  door  lay 
flat  on  the  ground ;  the  other  hung  by  a  single  hinge 
only,  and  we  had  no  difficulty  in  entering.  The  sol- 
dier had  a  pocket-lamp,  and  he  struck  a  light  by 
means  of  flint  and  tinder,  a  contrivance  which  is  still 
in  use  in  Russia.  The  body  of  a  huge  man  lay  at  the 
foot  of  the  stairs.  He  was  nearly  naked,  and  much 
decayed ;  and  we  could  not  tell  if  he  had  been  friend 
or  foe.  The  whole  place  was  in  much  confusion. 
There  had  evidently  been  hand  to  hand  fighting  in 
all  the  rooms ;  and  upstairs  there  were  the  remains  of 
about  a  dozen  men  heaped  together  in  the  apartment 
where  the  two  corpses  first  noticed  were  hanging  out 
of  the  window.  All  were  in  an  advanced  state  of 
decay,  and  must  have  been  dead  weeks,  if  not  months. 
The  horrible  fetor  of  the  place  was  unendurable,  and 
we  were  glad  to  return  into  the  fresh  air,  the  soldier 
being  greatly  upset.  I  thought  it  advisable  to  return 
and  report  before  making  a  further  search  of  th« 
house  and  its  environs ;  and  Folstoffle  decided  to  wait 
until  the  morning  before  examining  the  neighbour- 
hood. 

The  spot  where  this  discovery  was  made  was  be-  i 
tween  Klodava  and  Krasuyvice.  No  doubt  there  ' 
had  been  fighting  all  over  this  district,  but  none  of  | 
those  composing  our  party  had  taken  a  part  in  it.  j 
In  the  morning  we  found  nearly  a  hundred  bodiee  ! 


AN  INFANTRY  RECONNAISSANCE  163 

scattered  about,  and  lying  in  two  heaps  in  what  ap- 
peared to  have  been  the  garden  and  orchard  of  the 
farm:  but  the  place  was  completely  wrecked.  The 
sight  was,  on  a  small  scale,  as  dreadful  as  any  I  wit- 
nessed during  the  war.  Many  of  the  dead  were 
skeletons,  or  nearly  so:  animals,  probably  dogs  and 
pigs,  had  been  at  work  on  others ;  and  all  were  pretty 
well  in  the  last  stage  of  putridity.  Many  retained 
the  positions  in  which  they  had  died  and  stiffened. 
One  man,  with  no  eyes  left  in  the  sockets  of  his  skull, 
was  holding  one  arm  straight  up  in  the  air;  another 
had  both  arms  and  legs  raised  as  he  lay  on  his  back 
—  a  position  which  would  have  been  comical  if  it 
had  not  been  so  dreadful  and  tragical.  In  one  heap 
were  two  men  clasping  each  other  in  what  had  evi- 
dently been  a  death  struggle.  Another  still  grasped 
the  bayonet  with  which  he  had  killed  a  foe:  and  an 
officer  had  his  sword  raised  and  his  mouth  wide  open 
as  if  giving  an  order  at  the  instant  of  his  death.  The 
appearance  of  all  was  so  extremely  ghastly  that  it 
cannot  be  described.  Though  mostly  covered  with 
snow  I  saw  many  faces  which  were  blue,  green, 
black  in  hue,  and  had  lost  all  resemblance  to  human 
features.  Russians  and  Germans  lay  there  in  about 
equal  proportions;  and  there  we  were  compelled  to 
leave  them :  for  we  had  no  tools,  nor  was  the  ground 
in  a  condition  for  rapid  grave-digging.  There  may 
have  been  more  bodies  in  some  of  the  neighbouring 
ravines  and  woods;  but  we  had  no  time  to  look  for 
them.  From  what  I  afterwards  saw,  I  have  no 
doubt  that  the  dead  were  often  left  unburied ;  a  dread- 


164       AN  ENGLISHMAN  IN  THE  RUSSIAN  RANKS 

fill  thing,  for  there  is  always  a  host  of  ravenous  dogs 
in  Eussian  villages ;  and  as  many  of  these  were  now 
ownerless,  they  had  run  wild.  Besides  these  there 
were  wild  boars  and  wolves,  always  ready  to  take 
toll  of  the  battlefield;  to  say  nothing  of  the  crow  and  , 
the  raven. 

FolstofHe's  orders  had  been  to  return  before  mid- 
day on  the  23rd ;  but  it  was  after  that  hour  before  we 
turned  to  rejoin  our  main  body.  About  four  o'clock 
we  met  a  section  coming  to  look  for  us,  as  Colonel 
Krastnovitz  had  become  anxious. 

The  object  of  the  reconnaissance  was  said  to  be 
accomplished;  we  had  found  that  there  were  no 
enemies  in  that  district ;  or,  at  any  rate,  in  our  imme- 
diate neighbourhood;  and  this  information  was  cor- 
roborated by  that  of  half  a  sotnia  of  Cossacks,  who, 
it  seems,  had  been  acting  in  conjunction  with  us, 
though  we  had  seen  nothing  of  them  since  starting 
on  our  little  expedition. 

But  our  leaders  must  have  had  a  belief  that  the 
enemy  was  at  hand:  for  we  received  orders  to  fall 
back  on  our  deserted  village,  and  put  it  into  a  state 
of  defence,  which  we  did  by  loopholing  what  remained 
of  the  walls,  and  digging  trenches  round  the  outskirts. 

In  cases  like  this  the  trenches  are  held  and  de- 
fended while  the  enemy  is  using  his  artillery;  but 
when  the  actual  assault  takes  place,  and  he  can  no 
longer  use  his  guns  for  fear  of  injuring  his  own 
troops,  the  defenders  retire  to  the  loop-holes  as  a 
second  line  of  defence ;  and  as  they  can  fire  into  the 
trenches,  these  are  seldom  tenable  by  the  enemy. 


CHAPTER  XIII 

THE  butcher's   BILL   TO   THE   ETH)   OF    1914 

^E  were  strictly  kept  within  our  lines:  I  had  no 
opportunity,  therefore,  of  ascertaining  what  other 
troops  were  in  our  neighbourhood.  I  took  it  for 
granted  that  we  were  supported,  as  it  was  quite  clear 
that  our  battalion  was  acting  as  an  advanced  post. 
A  battery  of  eight  guns  was  sent  to  strengthen  our 
position ;  but  no  other  troops  showed  themselves ;  and 
the  battery  conunander  declared  that  he  had  come  a 
distance  of  forty  versts  by  march-route  without  see- 
ing more  than  a  few  detachments  of  infantry  and 
cavalry,  the  last  named  chiefly  Cossacks. 

Writing  of  numbers  recalls  certain  remarks  which 
I  heard  about  this  time  concerning  the  force,  or  sup- 
posed force,  of  ourselves  and  our  enemies.  The  Ger- 
,  mans  on  the  East  Prussian  front  were  put  by  our 
■  commander  at  1,600,000  men,  with  another  250,000 
or  300,000  in  Austria.  I  am  inclined  to  think  that 
these  figures  are  an  under  estimation;  though,  on 
account  of  the  speed  with  which  the  Germans  moved 
their  troops  about  by  rail,  it  was  very  difficult  to 
arrive  at  correct  conclusions  concerning  their  num- 
bers. At  one  time,  however,  when  they  considered 
there  was  a  serious  fear  of  Germany  being  rapidly 

overrun  by  their  ponderous  foe,  I  am  sure  there  was 

165 


166       AN  ENGLISHMAN  IN  THE  RUSSIAN  RANKS 

more  than  2,000,000  German  soldiers  on  the  Eastern 
front  with  not  less  than  3,500  field-guns,  and  1,000 
guns  of  position,  not  including  machine-guns  of  rifle- 
calibre. 

To  oppose  this  vast  force  the  Russians  had  about 
3,000,000  men  in  Poland,  and  West  and  South  Rus- 
sia, with  3,000  field-guns,  and  about  400  guns  of 
position  and  siege-guns.  They  claimed  to  have  an- 
other 3,000,000  mobilizing,  and  already  on  the  move; 
and  I  do  not  think  this  was  an  exaggeration.  Rus- 
sia could  easily  raise  12,000,000  good  troops,  if  she 
had  the  material  and  money  to  furnish  them.  That 
money  is  the  sinews  of  war  is  not  a  trite  saying  — 
it  is  an  absolute  fact.  Without  gold  armies  cannot 
exist,  any  more  than  they  can  subsist  without  food. 
The  output  of  Russian  soldiers  is  limited  by  the  finan- 
cial resources  of  the  country.  She  had  3,000,000 
men  at  the  front.  When  a  quarter  of  a  million  of 
these  was  wiped  out,  they  were  replaced  by  another 
quarter  of  a  million;  and  so  on.  The  reason  that 
no  more  than  the  3,000,000  was  ever  present  at  the 
front  at  one  and  the  same  time  seemed  to  be  that  the 
number  stated  was  all  she  could  supply  in  the  field : 
and  these  were  serving,  practically,  without  pay; 
and  often  on  food  that  was  scanty  in  quantity,  and 
coarse  in  quality.  After  the  close  of  the  year  1914 
the  Russians,  seeing  that  it  was  a  stem  necessity, 
made  almost  superhuman  efi^orts  to  bring  up  more 
artillery;  and  they  increased  the  number  of  their 
heavy  siege-guns;  and,  in  a  lesser  degree,  those  of 
the  field  and  machine  classes  of  ordnance. 


THE  BUTCHER'S  BILL  TO  THE  END  OF  1914       167 

The  Russians  were  always  very  strong  in  cavalry. 
I  believe  their  mounted  Cossacks  alone  exceeded 
60,000  men;  and  there  was,  probably,  40,000  line 
cavalry  in  Poland  —  cuirassiers,  dragoons,  lancers 
hussars,  chasseurs,  etc. —  to  oppose  which  the  Ger- 
mans had  certainly  no  more  than  20,000  inferior 
horsemen.  The  Russian  cavalry  are  not  compar- 
able to  those  of  England  and  France;  but  they  are 
far  superior  to  those  of  Germany :  yet,  I  must  admit, 
the  latter  Power  had  to  contend  against  superior 
numbers  in  this  arm.  I  believe  that  in  every  cav- 
alry encounter  which  took  place  the  Russians  had 
a  numerical,  as  well  as  a  tactical,  superiority. 

In  reference  to  losses:  the  Russians  put  those  of 
their  enemies  on  this  front  at  about  1,000,000  men  at 
the  close  of  the  first  five  months  of  the  war.  This 
includes  prisoners.  It  is  said  that  50,000  Austrians 
were  captured  in  the  first  fortnight  of  December.  I 
was  an  eye-witness  to  the  awful  slaughter  which  took 
place  on  many  occasions ;  but,  as  I  have  pointed  out, 
the  majority  of  the  wounded  men  soon  return  to  the 
ranks.  Still,  I  think  the  Germans  had  at  least 
400,000  men  put  out  of  action  in  this  region,  not  in- 
cluding prisoners. 

The  loss  of  the  Russians  I  believe  to  have  been 
quite  as  heavy  as  that  of  the  Germans,  perhaps  even 
more  so.  Their  chief  strength  lay  in  the  fact  that 
they  could  speedily  replace  every  man  they  lost,  which 
the  Germans  could  not  do. 


CHAPTER  Xiy 

"  DO   NOT  FIEE   ON   TOUE   COMEADES  " 

Day  after  day  we  passed  in  our  miserable  bivouac, 
short  of  food,  short  of  news,  short  of  everything. 
When  news  did  come  it  was  rather  disquieting :  Ger- 
many was  said  to  have  a  fleet  of  armed  river  boats  on 
the  Vistula  some  thirty  to  thirty-five  English  miles 
to  our  right  rear.  It  would  be  rather  awkward  if 
these  gunboats  landed  a  force  behind  us,  specially  as 
it  seemed  as  if  we  were  not  supported  in  this  direc- 
tion, except  by  a  few  sotnias  of  Cossacks.  Our  forces 
seemed  to  be  very  quiet  and  unprogressive  every- 
where, except  on  the  Austrian  and  Turkish  frontiers. 
We  had  the  weather,  perhaps,  in  part,  to  thank  for 
this  state  of  things.  It  was  simply  atrocious.  Near 
the  end  of  the  year  there  was  a  partial  thaw,  followed 
by  heavy  rain,  which  quickly  turned  to  a  blinding 
sleet.  Then  there  came  a  dull,  heavy  day,  with 
black,  lowering  clouds,  and  bitter  cold.  The  snow 
recommenced,  and  fell  as  one  might  expect  it  to  fall, 
in  Russia  and  Poland.  With  a  few  intervals  it  con- 
tinued to  float  down  in  big  feathery  flakes  for  an  en- 
tire week,  and  it  drifted  round  us  as  high  as  the  roofs 
of  the  houses,  or  the  charred  eaves  where  those  roofs 
had  once  rested ;  and  we  could  not  leave  the  environs 
of  the   village   until  we   had  cut   a  way  through. 

Buried  beneath  the  snow  we  did  not  feel  the  icy  wind 

168 


"  DO  NOT  FIRE  ON  YOUR  COMRADES  "  169 

SO  keenly  as  those  did  who  were  unavoidably  exposed 
to  it  when  on  outpost  duty;  of  which,  however,  we 
all  had  our  share.  There  were,  also,  occasional 
reconnaissances  on  a  small  scale  —  a  dozen  men,  or 
so,  in  a  party.  I  was  always  glad  to  accompany 
these,  as  the  monotony  of  life  in  a  ruin,  without  suffi- 
cient food,  and  no  recreation  except  card-playing, 
was  unendurable. 

The  object  of  these  little  expeditions  was  to  ascer- 
tain if  we  were  likely  to  be  attacked ;  or  if  the  enemy 
was  moving  in  our  neighbourhood.  The  whole  coun- 
try was  deserted,  except  by  pigs  and  dogs,  and  a  few 
wild  animals.  The  pigs  had  been  turned  loose,  I 
supposed,  to  get  their  own  living  as  best  they  could; 
and  I  am  afraid  that  a  good  many  of  them  were 
carnivorous,  as  the  dogs  certainly  were.  These 
brutes  were  vagabonds  by  choice,  and  it  was  a  wonder 
to  me  that  so  many  of  them  were  tolerated  in  the 
towns  and  villages  of  all  parts  of  Eussia  and  Poland 
I  visited. 

It  was  shocking  to  see  the  number  of  empty  and 
'  destroyed  houses,  some  isolated  and  standing  alone, 
others  in  clusters  forming  small  hamlets  and  villages. 
In  the  rooms  of  some,  or  in  the  courtyards,  and 
sometimes  in  the  open  fields,  we  came  across  the 
bodies  of  peasants  and  soldiers  who  had  not  been 
buried.  The  remains  of  one  man  were  hanging  from 
a  tree.  He  was  little  more  than  a  skeleton,  and  the 
eyeless  sockets  of  his  skull  had  an  inexpressibly  hor- 
rid appearance.  There  were  also  the  carcasses  of 
domestic  animals  lying  about,  wantonly  killed.     It 


170       AN  ENGLISHMAN  IN  THE  RUSSIAN  RANKS 

is  really  difficult  to  understand  the  state  of  mind  of 
men  who  could  be  guilty  of  such  cowardly  and 
monstrous  cruelty.  Isolated  acts  of  wickedness  occur 
in  all  wars;  but  here  we  seemed  to  have  a  whole 
people,  multitudinous  in  numbers,  afflicted  with  the 
madness  of  blood-lust. 

Very  little  information  was  gleaned  from  these 
reconnaissances.  The  few  miserables  who  still 
lurked  about  the  ruins  of  their  former  homes  said 
that  no  soldiers  had  been  in  their  neighbourhood  since 
the  fighting  which  led  to  the  destruction  of  the  coun- 
try. One  old  fellow,  with  mattock  and  spade,  and 
accompanied  by  a  faithful  dog,  was  making  it  his 
business  to  bury  the  abandoned  bodies  of  his  dead 
countrymen.  He  said  he  had  made  graves  for  forty- 
five  of  them,  and  he  was  still  very  busy  and  com- 
plained that  he  had  to  lose  much  time  while  he  was 
looking  for  food.  We  gave  him  all  we  had  with  us. 
He  had  been  living  chiefly  on  hares  which  he  tracked 
down  in  the  snow.  We  had  discovered,  ourselves, 
that  this  was  an  easy  way  of  capturing  them;  and 
they  often  made  an  agreeable  addition  to  our  poor 
fare.  We  also  caught  an  odd  sheep  or  two,  pretty 
lean  for  want  of  a  shepherd's  care;  and  pork  was 
plentiful  enough  for  those  who  cared  to  partake  of  it, 
who  became  fewer  every  day,  as  it  became  more  and 
more  evident  that  these  omnivorous  creatures  were 
living  on  carrion  and  the  bodies  of  the  unburied  slain. 

We  gained  some  important  bits  of  information, 
amongst  them  the  fact  that  we  were  not  supported 
by  other  troops;  and  that  reinforcements  were  pass- 


"  DO  NOT  FIRE  ON  YOUR  COMRADES  "  171 

ing  through  Warsaw,  day  and  night,  in  an  unbroken 
stream.  They  were  proceeding  mostly  towards  the 
Austrian  frontier,  and  to  the  scene  of  the  fighting  on 
the  Vistula,  or  rather  on  its  tributaries,  the  Pilica, 
Bzura,  Bug,  and  the  JSTarew ;  a  region  extensively  en- 
trenched. 

The  fact  that  no  troops  appeared  to  be  supporting 
our  outpost  greatly  disturbed  the  mind  of  Colonel 
Krastnovitz,  who  even  expressed  the  opinion  that  he 
was  either  forgotten,  or  cut  off;  and  it  really  looked 
as  if  something  of  this  sort  had  occurred,  as  the  officer 
had  received  no  orders,  or  supplies,  for  ten  days ;  and 
the  men  were  almost  starving.  We  sent  out  forag- 
ing parties  every  day;  but  the  country  had  been 
cleared  of  provisions  to  such  a  degree  that  it  was  al- 
most a  desert.  In  our  extremity  we  applied  to  a 
Cossack  officer,  and  thenceforth  he  sent  us  in  a  cart 
or  two  of  food  every  day,  consisting  of  bread  (in  bis- 
cuit form),  bacon,  wheat,  flour  and  oats.  Where  he 
obtained  these  supplies  he  did  not  say;  and  nobody 
made  it  his  business  to  inquire.  Cossacks  are  free 
and  easy  fellows ;  and  they  never  starve.  There  is  no 
instance  in  their  history  of  their  ever  having  done  so. 
If  they  cannot  find  enemies  to  rob,  they  borrow  from 
friends ;  and  failing  this,  ten  to  one  they  take  toll  of 
their  own  convoys.  Do  they  get  into  trouble  for  such 
playful  pranks  ?  All  I  can  say  is  that  I  have  never 
seen  a  dead  donkey,  nor  a  court-marti ailed  Cossack. 
The  beggars  may  live  on  thistles,  but  they  do  live. 

I  suggested  to  Colonel  Krastnovitz  that  it  was 
necessary  we  should  get  into  communication  with  the 


172       AN  ENGLISHMAN  IN  THE  RUSSIAN  RANKS 

commander,  as  it  was  impossible  for  him  either  to 
maintain  his  position  or  vacate  it  without  orders. 
He  quite  agreed:  and  twenty  men  under  Captain 
Folstoffle  were  detailed  to  search  for  the  remaining 
battalions  of  the  regiment.  Our  obliging  Cossack 
commander  placed  half  a  dozen  of  his  men  at  our 
disposal,  and  was  good  enough  to  give  us  a  couple  of 
old  horses  which  he  had  picked  up,  and  which  were 
worth,  I  suppose,  their  weight  in  —  cat's  meat. 
Still,  the  snow  was  deep,  the  way  was  long,  and  the 
pilgrim  not  too  young  or  strong,  and  I  was  glad  to 
throw  my  leg  over  the  craziest  old  crock  I  ever 
mounted. 

Our  Cossack  friends  were  of  a  party  having  a  rov- 
ing commission,  and  reporting  direct  to  Warsaw, 
;which  was  now  encircled  by  trenches  and  earthworks, 
the  permanent  forts  being  old  and  not  to  be  depended 
on;  and  I  may  add,  on  my  own  responsibility,  woe- 
fully short  of  heavy  artillery.  As  far  as  the  Cos- 
sacks knew  there  were  no  Russian  troops  nearer  to 
our  position  than  the  trenches  at  Skyermevice,  where 
they  were  in  pretty  close  contact  with  the  enemy. 
"We  heard  that  there  had  been  fighting  quite  recently ; 
and  daily  we  heard  the  reports  of  artillery  in  that  di- 
rection, the  distance  being  less  than  thirty  versts. 

The  Russians  are  marchers  as  well  as  fighters ;  but 
the  roads  were  so  blocked  with  snow  that  we  could 
rarely  discern  them,  and  we  took  a  direct  route 
straight  across  the  country.  This  was  very  well ;  but 
the  men  sank  in  to  the  knee  at  every  step,  and  prog- 
ress was  very  slow,  while  concealment  was  impos- 


"  DO  NOT  FIRE  ON  YOUR  COMRADES  "    173 

sible.  If  only  a  small  body  of  the  enemy  bad 
appeared  we  should  have  had  no  alternative  but  un- 
conditional surrender  —  not  a  pleasant  lookout,  espe- 
cially for  me,  who  could  not  hope  to  pass  for  a  Rus- 
sian. In  spite  of  strenuous  exertion  we  could  not 
advance  faster  than  two  versts  an  hour  (less  than  a 
mile  and  a  half).  When,  therefore,  we  came  to  a 
gentleman's  house,  we  decided  to  remain  there  and 
send  on  two  of  the  Cossacks  with  a  written  message 
to  the  nearest  commanding  officer  they  could  find. 

These  men  did  not  return  until  late  the  following 
day,  bringing  orders  for  the  battalion  to  proceed  to 
a  village  called  Samitz,  near  Skyermevice.  Captain 
Folstoffle  decided  to  remain  where  he  was  and  send 
on  the  message  to  the  Colonel. 

We  were  in  very  good  quarters  at  the  house  men- 
tioned above.  The  family  had  fled  to  a  place  of 
greater  safety,  leaving  an  old  couple  to  look  after  the 
mansion,  and  answer  all  German  inquiries.  Strange 
to  say,  and  very  fortunately  for  us,  the  Germans  had 
not  visited  this  house;  and  everything  being  intact 
we  had  plenty  of  food  and  wine,  and  good  beds  to 
sleep  in.  There  was  a  poultry  yard  with  abundance 
of  fowls,  ducks  and  geese ;  and  a  piggery  full  of  fine 
porkers  with  no  suspicion  attached  to  their  recent 
diet,  and  —  well,  the  Cossacks  looked  after  this  de- 
partment, not  forgetting  the  respect  due  to  their  su- 
periors when  the  roast  was  ready:  and  I  am  afraid 
that  the  poor  old  woman  had  some  doubts  which  was 
most  preferable  —  a  visit  from  the  Germans,  or  a 
self -invitation  from  her  compatriots;  and  I  am  not 


174       AN  ENGLISHMAN  IN  THE  RUSSIAN  RANKS 

sure  she  did  not  say  as  much.  She  certainly  had  a 
good  deal  to  say;  and  I  did  not  need  to  understand 
Russian  to  perceive  the  temper  and  tone  in  which  her 
speech  was  delivered.  But  her  protests  were  re- 
ceived with  sublime  indifference,  and  she  was  calmly 
presented  with  receipts  and  bills  which  she  was  in- 
formed the  Russian  Government  would  honour  in 
due  course. 

The  next  day,  the  8th  January,  1915,  the  battalion! 
arrived  at  this  pleasant  halting-place,  and  cleared  up 
the  remnants  of  the  poultry-yard  and  piggery.  It 
took  us  all  day  on  the  9th  to  reach  Samitz,  which  the 
enemy  was  shelling  vigorously.  The  village  was  a 
small  place  originally ;  and  half  of  it  had  already  been 
reduced  to  something  very  like  dust.  The  only 
civilian  I  saw  in  the  place  was  a  woman,  who  was 
crying  bitterly  as  she  sat  on  the  threshold  of  a  shat- 
tered cottage,  quite  oblivious,  in  her  terrible  grief, 
of  such  trifling  dangers  as  bursting  shells.  These 
are  the  sights  that  upset  men,  even  soldiers  born,  and 
cause  them  to  hate  war.  Even  the  dogs  and  the  pigs 
had  deserted  this  place. 

The  headquarters,  and  the  other  battalions  of  the 
Vladimir  regiment,  were  not  at  Samitz ;  and  nobody 
could  tell  us  where  they  were.  We  were  politely 
told  not  to  bother  our  heads  about  our  comrades,  but 
to  get  into  the  trenches  at  once.  Fortunately  we 
were  with  "  goodly  capon  lined  " ;  for  they  had  not 
the  good  manners  here  to  give  us  a  ration  before  send- 
ing us  on  duty.  But  the  service  was  pressing  just 
then,  as  we  soon  discovered. 


"  DO  NOT  FIRE  ON  YOUR  COMRADES  "    175 

Night  was  closing  in  when  we  became  aware  that 
a  heavy  mass  of  the  enemy  was  making  straight  for 
the  trench  we  occupied.  They  were  shouting  loudly 
something  I  did  not  understand;  and  orders  were 
passed  along  the  trench  that  we  were  to  lie  quiet,  and 
not  fire  until  the  foe  was  quite  close.  I  thought  this 
a  foolish  order,  but  of  course  obeyed  it,  like  the  rest 
of  the  men. 

I  afterwards  read  in  an  English  newspaper  of  a 
dodge  practised  by  the  Germans  of  running  up 
dressed  in  English  uniform,  and  shouting  something 
like  this :  "  Ve  vos  not  Shermans ;  we  vos  Royal 
.Vest  Surreys !  " 

A  similar  trick  was  played  on  us  at  this  time.  It 
appears  the  Germans  shouted :  "  We  are  a  reinforce- 
ment of  Russians ;  do  not  fire  on  your  comrades !  " 

We  did  not  fire  until  they  reached  the  wire  en- 
tanglement which  protected  the  front  of  the  trench: 

and  then .     Well,  they  went  down  as  if  blasted 

by  a  wind  from  Hades.  Point-blank,  quick-firing: 
and  then,  while  the  groan  of  fright  and  horror  was 
still  issuing  from  their  lips,  came  the  order,  "  Upon 
them  with  the  bayonet  —  Charge." 

There  was  no  fighting:  it  was  simply  slaughter 
amidst  yells,  curses,  and  abject  screams  for  mercy. 
Eor  the  first  time  in  this  campaign  I  saw  German 
soldiers  fairly  and  unmistakably  routed.  There  was 
no  mistake  about  it  this  time.  Old  Jack  Ealstaff 
never  carried  his  paunch  as  nimbly  as  these  Germans 
carried  theirs  in  their  run  for  their  lives. 

We  took  no  prisoners :  or,  if  any,  only  one  or  two 


176       AN  ENGLISHMAN  IN  THE  RUSSIAN  RANKS 

odd  ones;  and  we  scarcely  lost  a  man,  except  after- 
wards, by  artillery  fire.  For  the  Germans,  abso- 
lutely routed,  sought  vengeance  by  opening  as  heavy 
an  artillery  shelling  as  they  could;  but  it  was  little 
better  than  a  waste  of  ammunition,  and  killed  more 
of  their  own  wounded  than  it  did  of  our  men. 

When  morning  came,  I  calculated  that  2,000  Ger- 
man bodies  lay  on  half  a  verst  of  our  front.  The 
groans  and  cries  of  the  wounded  were  awful  to  hear ; 
but  nobody  could  help  them.  Their  own  people 
made  no  overtures  to  do  so ;  and  when  our  Red  Cross 
men  attempted  to  go  to  their  assistance  they  were  fired 
on  by  the  enemy  in  the  most  cowardly  way.  I^one 
of  our  wounded  lay  outside  the  trench. 

When  darkness  set  in  Captain  Folstoffle,  and  an 
officer  called  Skidal,  with  Drs.  Wolnoff  and  Falovki, 
myself  and  a  dozen  stretcher-bearers  of  the  Red  Cross 
Service,  went  out  to  try  to  be  of  some  service  to  the 
suffering  and  dying.  It  was  a  dark  night;  but  the 
snow  rendered  objects  visible;  and  the  miserable 
wail  of  the  injured  guided  us  to  where  they  lay 
thickest.  J^othing  could  be  more  awful:  one  man 
with  the  top  of  his  skull  blown  off,  and  the  brains  ex- 
posed, was  still  alive,  and  most  anxious  to  be  saved. 
He  begged  piteously  to  be  first  attended  to ;  but  what 
could  be  done  for  such  a  case?  We  made  him  as 
comfortable  as  we  could  under  such  dreadful  circum- 
stances, and  left  him:  though  his  cries  to  be  taken 
away,  or  at  least  have  somebody  remain  with  him, 
haunted  my  mind  for  many  days  afterwards. 

It  was  puzzling  to  know  where  to  commence  work 


"  DO  NOT  FIRE  ON  YOUR  COMRADES  "  177 

■when  so  many  required  attention.  We  gave  first  aid 
to  a  great  many,  and  sent  some  to  the  rear  of  our 
trenches ;  but  it  was  obviously  of  no  use  to  treat  hope- 
less cases.  We  removed  them  to  more  sheltered  posi- 
tions, and  made  them  more  comfortable.  One  or  two 
were  groaning  under  heaps  of  their  slain  comrades: 
we  released  these,  and  dressed  their  wounds.  Some 
were  very  grateful  for  the  aid  rendered.  One  man 
kissed  the  hand  of  the  attendant  helping  him;  and 
another  was  very  profuse  in  his  thanks.  Others 
were  cursing  their  Kaiser  and  their  country,  and 
even  the  Almighty,  for  entailing  so  much  misery 
upon  them.  One  man  was  insane,  probably  as  a  re- 
sult of  his  fears  rather  than  his  sufferings. 

Many  corpses  were  broken  to  pieces,  probably  as 
a  result  of  the  German's  own  shell-fire.  When  the 
arms  of  a  dead  man  were  taken  hold  of  to  release  an- 
other soldier  pinned  down  beneath  him,  they  both 
came  away  at  the  first  pull,  owing  to  the  body  being 
completely  shattered.  Several  dissevered  limbs  lay 
about;  and  also  headless  bodies:  and  we  discovered 
one  dead  man,  who  had  died  in  the  act  of  holding  his 
bowels  in,  the  outside  of  the  stomach  having  been  shot 
away.  While  we  were  attending  to  these  miserable 
men,  a  shell  came  from  the  enemy's  line  and  killed 
Lieutenant  Skidal  and  two  of  the  men,  and  so  severely 
wounded  Dr.  Wolnoff  that  he  died  a  few  days  after- 
wards. Of  course  we  abandoned  our  work,  and  re- 
turned to  the  shelter  of  our  trenches.  In  a  similar 
way  the  Germans  often  put  a  stop  to  the  would-be 
good  work  our  people  attempted  to  perform. 


CHAPTER  XV 

SMALL   AFFAIES    AND    PEESONAL    ADVENTURES 

Throughout  the  niglit  there  was  cannonading  at  in- 
tervals, some  of  the  shells  weighing  about  100  pounds. 
,We  had  no  guns  so  heavy  in  our  lines ;  and  I  attribute 
the  fact  that  the  Russians  were  never  able  to  fully 
push  home  their  attacks  to  this  cause.  Their  artil- 
lery, of  all  classes,  was  decidedly  inferior  to  that  of 
their  foes,  and  there  was  a  sad  lacking  of  large  pieces 
of  siege  ordnance,  without  which  a  modern  army  can 
hardly  hope  to  beat  its  foes  out  of  well-constructed 
trenches. 

On  the  following  day  the  Germans  did  not  make  a 
direct  attack  on  our  position ;  but  they  sent  out  a  host 
of  snipers  and  skirmishers,  who  fired  on  us,  causing 
many  casualties,  from  snow-pits,  and  heaps  of  the 
same  material.  At  first  sight  it  would  seem  that 
snow  would  not  prove  a  very  efficacious  defence; 
nevertheless  pits  and  trenches  made  of  it  afford  splen- 
did protection  to  infantry,  and  even  to  field-guns. 
We  found  it  impossible  to  dislodge  these  skirmishers 
by  artillery  fire  alone ;  and  individually  they  offered 
no  mark  to  our  riflemen. 

On  the  14th  January  we  attempted  an  assault  of 

the  German  position,  but  were  stopped  at  their  wire 

entanglement  and  shot  down  in  such  numbers  that 

178 


SMALL  AFFAIRS  AND  PERSONAL  ADVENTURES      179 

we  were  compelled  to  retreat,  leaving  1,000  men  be- 
liind,  mostly  dead  and  dying,  but  a  few  of  them 
prisoners  of  war.  In  this  attempted  assault  we  dis- 
covered that  the  enemy  were  using  their  iron  shields, 
fixed  upright  in  the  ground,  as  a  protection  behind 
which  to  shoot  from.  At  long  range  our  rifle-bullets 
could  not  penetrate  them;  but  they  were  an  inde- 
scribably clumsy  contrivance  to  carry  about  in  the 
way  the  Germans  first  used  them.  They  discovered 
that  themselves,  and  abandoned  their  use,  except  in 
trenches;  nor  were  they  of  much  use  at  close  quar- 
ters; for  bullets  would  pierce  them,  sometimes  at  as 
great  a  range  as  500  yards. 

Several  little  adventures  happened  to  us  while  we 
were  in  these  trenches.  For  instance,  one  night  I 
thought  I  saw  several  small  pyramids  of  snow  mov- 
ing about ;  and  watching  carefully  I  presently  saw  a 
man  clothed  in  white  come  right  up  to  our  trenches. 
He  knew,  or  discovered,  the  spaces  left  in  the  wire 
entanglements  to  enable  us  to  sally  out.  His  move- 
ments were  so  regular  and  bold  that  I  was  afraid  to 
shoot  him,  thinking  he  might  be  one  of  our  men,  but 
went  at  once  to  Colonel  Krastnovitz's  hut,  and  re- 
ported what  I  had  seen.  !N'one  of  our  men  were,  at 
this  time,  clothed  in  white,  or  furnished  with  white 
cloaks,  and  the  Colonel  at  once  went  with  me  to  the 
spot  where  I  had  seen  the  mysterious  figure.  It  had 
disappeared;  but  in  about  ten  minutes  several  men, 
scarcely  distinguishable  from  the  snow,  were  dimly 
discerned  moving  about,  and  evidently  examining 
our  network  of  barbed  wire.     One  of  them  seemed  to 


180       AN  ENGLISHMAN  IN  THE  RUSSIAN  RANKS 

be  looking  for  something  among  the  dead  (all  the 
wounded  were  very  quiet  by  this  time),  and  was  seen 
to  turn  a  corpse  over. 

Our  men,  dead  beaten  with  excessive  fatigue,  were 
asleep  in  the  trench,  a  couple  of  sentries  excepted; 
but  several  men  were  aroused,  and  the  Colonel  whis- 
pered his  orders  to  them.  Several  angry  spurts  of 
fire,  accompanied  by  sharp  reports,  and  our  prying 
Germans  clothed  in  white  raiment  were  hurrying 
away  across  the  plain,  leaving  two  of  their  number 
behind  stretched  on  the  ground.  We  went  out  to  ex- 
amine these  fallen  heroes.  One  was  past  help:  the 
other  was  only  wounded,  and  that  not  very  seri- 
ously. He  said  he  was  willing  to  surrender,  and 
hoped  we  would  not  murder  him:  rather  comical,  I 
thought ;  but  the  Russian  mind  is  slow  in  perceiving 
a  joke ;  and  so  his  captors  devoted  all  their  attention 
to  examining  his  white  cloak,  or  overall,  and  making 
notes  of  the  same.  The  young  prisoner  (he  appeared 
to  be  no  more  than  twenty  years )  was  not  "  mur- 
dered," had  his  wounds  seen  to,  and  was  sent  to  the 
rear.  We  saw  no  more  of  "the  dashing  white  ser- 
geants "  that  night,  but  afterwards  became  well  ac- 
quainted with  them,  and  imitated  their  tactics,  for 
whole  divisions  of  Russians  wore  white  gaberdines 
when  there  was  snow  on  the  ground. 

On  the  night  of  the  15th  a  regiment  of  infantry, 
with  our  battalion  attached,  and  supported  by  a 
strong  division  of  Cossacks,  made  an  attack  of  the 
German  trenches  on  our  right.  We  captured  one  of 
their  advanced  positions,  but  were  soon  driven  out 


SMALL  AFFAIRS  AND  PERSONAL  ADVENTURES      181 

by  a  shower  of  hand-grenades,  not  the  first  time  I  had 
seen  these  very  destructive  missiles  used,  though  I 
never  expected  that  they  would  be  resorted  to  in 
modern  warfare.  That  their  use  should  have  died 
out  is  remarkable;  for  they  are  a  most  effective 
weapon  at  close  quarters.  The  poison-gas,  of  which, 
I  am  thankful  to  say,  I  saw  nothing,  is  a  diabolical 
development  of  the  ancient  "  stink-pot,"  a  contriv- 
ance to  suffocate  an  enemy ;  but  one  that  was  not  par- 
ticularlv  cruel,  or  effective. 

In  this  second  sortie,  which  cost  us  400  men,  we 
captured  several  of  the  iron  shields,  before  men- 
tioned ;  and  the  Russian  commanders  thought  it  worth 
while  to  have  some  made  of  the  same  pattern;  but 
as  I  have  already  stated,  their  use  was  soon  consid- 
ered to  be  a  mistake  and  a  failure,  and  they  were  set 
up  as  a  kind  of  bulwark  in  the  trenches.  They  were 
of  some  use  in  making  barricades  in  narrow  spaces 
where  there  was  not  room  enough  for  an  earthen 
parapet. 

We  were  not  so  discouraged  by  these  little  reverses 
as  we  might  have  been  had  we  not  enjoyed  a  con- 
tinual stream  of  good  news.  Great  things  were  re- 
ported to  be  occurring  on  the  Austrian  front ;  and  the 
cavalry  in  our  own  neighbourhood  had  several  skir- 
mishes with  the  enemy,  in  which  the  Germans,  as 
usual,  had  the  worst  of  it. 

The  weather  was  again  very  bad;  though,  really, 
there  had  not  been  much  improvement  in  it  for  sev- 
eral weeks.  Snow  fell  in  immense  quantities,  in 
the  form  in  which  the  Americans  call  blizzards :  that 


182       AN  ENGLISHMAN  IN  THE  RUSSIAN  RANKS 

is,  as  I  understand  the  term,  accompanied  bj  storms 
of  icy-cold  wind.  The  snow  lying  on  the  ground, 
however,  was  frozen  hard,  and  therefore  more  easily 
passed  over.  We  could  march  with  tolerable  ease 
and  rapidity.  We  were  often  moved  from  one  part 
of  the  trenches  and  back  again,  for  no  perceivable 
reason;  and  on  one  occasion  we  were  marched  forty 
versts  in  the  direction  of  Plock,  probably  because  a 
great  battle  was  expected.  There  was  heavy  fighting 
in  this  direction;  but  it  was  all  over  before  we  ar- 
rived. By  the  pronoun  I  mean  the  body  of  infantry 
to  which  the  Vladimir  battalion  was  attached,  and 
which  consisted  of  a  division  under  General  Beren- 
stoff.  It  was  made  up  largely  of  battalions  and  de- 
tachments which  had  lost  a  part  of  their  eilective 
force,  or  got  separated  from  their  regiments. 

Except  perhaps  in  Austria,  with  which  I  have 
nothing  to  do,  as  my  experiences  did  not  extend  to 
that  area  of  the  war,  there  was  little  progress  made, 
and  but  slight  reverses  suffered,  during  the  early 
part  of  the  year.  The  weather  and  the  state  of  the 
ground  may  have  had  something  to  do  with  this; 
but  I  think  both  sides  were  suffering  considerably 
from  exhaustion.  The  men  had  been  worked  inces- 
santly and  unmercifully,  yet  no  great  numbers  had 
fallen  out  on  account  of  breakdown.  Frost-bites  are 
not  common  amongst  Russian  troops,  even  in  the  se- 
verest weather ;  but  I  had  some  trouble  from  this  com- 
plaint myself.  The  soldiers  were  provided  with  good 
warm  clothing ;  but  furs  were  not  in  general  use ;  and 
a  few  regiments,  which  had  seen  a  great  deal  of  hard 


SMALL  AFFAIRS  AND  PERSONAL  ADVENTURES      183 

service,  were  almost  in  rags ;  yet  their  sufferings  did 
not  seem  to  be  greater  than  those  of  their  comrades. 
The  Russian  soldier  never  grumbles,  bj-the-by. 
Boots  are  the  great  desideratum  of  an  army  in  the 
field.  Nothing  will  break  an  army  up  sooner  than 
a  lack  of  foot-wear :  and  in  respect  of  this  necessary 
the  Russians  were  generally  well  provided,  though  I 
occasionally  met  detachments,  if  not  larger  bodies, 
who  had  completely  worn  out  their  boots,  and  re- 
sorted to  tying  their  feet  up  in  pieces  of  hide,  or 
sheep's  skin.  These  cases  were  so  rare  that  they 
scarcely  deserve  notice;  but  as  the  winter  wore  on 
the  clothing  of  the  troops  certainly  began  to  show- 
signs  of  wear. 

Personally  I  had  some  difficulty  in  providing 
necessaries.  Boots  were  given  to  me;  but  under- 
clothing was  both  difficult  to  obtain  and  to  keep  clean. 
No  article  was  scarcer  than  soap  in  the  Russian 
camp  —  it  never  found  its  way  to  the  trenches,  which 
were  in  a  shockingly  insanitary  condition.  It  could 
not  be  otherwise:  for  once  in  our  position  we  could 
not  leave  it,  even  for  a  few  moments,  until  regularly 
relieved  at  the  appointed  hour.  In  some  instances 
the  troops  were  in  the  trenches  for  a  week  without  in- 
termission. There  are  said  to  be  no  fleas  in  Russia. 
There  are  abundance  of  another  kind  of  vermin, 
which  revels  in  dirt ;  and  mice  were  so  numerous  in 
the  fields  that  things  had  to  be  closely  watched  to 
prevent  them  from  being  destroyed.  The  knapsacks 
of  the  Russians,  like  those  of  the  Germans,  are  made 
of  undressed  sheep's  skins;   and  these,   and  other 


184       AN  ENGLISHMAN  IN  THE  RUSSIAN  RANKS 

leather  articles,  were  often  nibbled  by  the  mice ;  wbile 
food  was  sure  to  be  spoiled  if  left  in  a  tent,  or  hut, 
for  a  few  hours.  Winter  did  not  rid  us  of  these 
pestiferous  little  rodents,  which  lived,  and  prospered, 
in  the  snow. 

I  usually  did  my  own  washing  and  mending,  tak- 
ing advantage  of  the  facilities  to  be  found  in  some  of 
the  deserted  houses,  where  tubs  and  pails  and  many 
other  things  had  been  left  behind  on  the  flight  of  the 
inhabitants,  and  hot  water  was  easily  procurable, 
though  I  never  found  any  soap. 

Baths  are  much  in  use  in  Russia,  but  more  as 
luxuries  and  sources  of  enjoyment  than  as  means  of 
cleanliness.  The  so-called  "  Turkish  bath  "  seems 
to  be  of  Russian  origin.  It  was  made  extemporane- 
ously by  the  soldiers  in  various  ways.  Sometimes 
they  closed  up  a  small  room  of  a  house,  and  filled  it 
■with  steam  by  sprinkling  water  on  stones  previously 
heated  to  a  white  heat ;  but  the  favourite  way  was  to 
make  a  small  hut  with  branches,  and  render  this  im- 
pervious by  covering  it  with  turf.  In  such  a  hovel 
a  soldier  could  pretty  nearly  suffocate  himself  in  ten 
minutes,  the  stones  being  heated  in  a  wood  fire  out- 
side. When  a  man  had  parboiled  himself  to  the  hue 
of  a  lobster,  he  would  rush  out  and  roll  about,  naked 
as  he  was,  in  the  snow;  the  operation  being  finished 
off  by  a  good  rub  down. 

The  steam  once  raised,  an  occasional  hot  stone 
would  keep  it  up  for  any  length  of  time;  and  man 
after  man  would  use  the  same  "  bath."  I  tried  this 
curious  operation  myself,  and  found  it  both  refresh- 


SMALL  AFFAIRS  AND  PERSONAL  ADVENTURES      185 

iug  and  strengthening;  and  it  is  a  fine  remover  of 
the  pain  and  exhaustion  occasioned  by  excess  of 
physical  exertion.  The  snow,  by-the-by,  at  this  time 
of  year  is  what  is  called  in  Russia  "  dry  snow." 
That  is,  it  is  frozen  so  intensely  that  it  does  not 
readily  thaw,  may  be  brushed  from  the  clothing,  does 
not  cling  to  anything,  and  blows  about  with  the  breeze 
like  dust.  I  preferred  this  state  of  things  to  the  fogs, 
which  in  the  autumn  and  early  part  of  the  winter 
were  very  troublesome,  and  prejudicial  to  the  general 
health. 

During  the  latter  part  of  January  there  was  not 
much  downfall  of  snow,  but  the  cold  was  intense,  and 
the  winds  such  as,  to  use  a  common  expression,  "  cut 
through  one."  The  snow  that  was  on  the  ground  got 
a  crust  that  would  easily  have  borne  a  man  on  snow- 
shoes  ;  but  these  useful  inventions  were  not  employed 
by  the  Russian  troops. 

Sometimes,  when  there  were  blizzards,  the  trenches 
were  nearly  filled  with  drifted  snow ;  and  more  than 
once,  the  men  were  buried  above  their  waists.  This 
was  an  inconvenience  from  the  military  point  of 
view ;  but  the  men  did  not  object  to  it  as  it  kept  them 
"warm;  and  snow-huts  were  much  used  during  the 
winter,  both  because  they  were  difiicult  to  be  dis- 
cerned by  a  distant  enemy,  and  because  they  make 
remarkably  warm  sleeping-places.  The  only  incon- 
venience is  that  the  heat  of  the  body  causes  the  snow 
on  the  inside  of  the  hut  to  melt  and  drip  on  the 
sleeper  until  he  is,  sometimes,  pretty  well  wet 
through,  the  Russian,  as  a  rule,  being  a  sound  sleepen 


186       AN  ENGLISHMAN  IN  THE  RUSSIAN  RANKS 

The  Germans,  also,  adopted  these  snow-huts,  and 
their  reconnoitring-parties  must  have  discovered 
ours ;  for  one  fine  morning,  just  as  the  sun  was  ris- 
ing clear  and  bright,  they  opened  fire  on  a  small  vil- 
lage of  these  hovels  which  we  had  constructed  behind 
our  trenches.  The  result  was  not  pleasant;  and  I 
saw  several  poor  fellows  blown  clean  into  the  air 
amidst  clouds  of  frozen  snow.  On  the  evening  o:^ 
that  day  we  trotted  out  for  a  retaliatory  expedition; 
but  nothing  much  came  of  it.  We  found  the  German 
position  too  strong  to  be  meddled  with ;  and  after  the 
exchange  of  a  few  rifle-shots  we  fell  back,  and  retired 
to  our  own  position.  Fortunately  for  us,  the  Ger- 
mans did  not  follow  us;  and  we  lost  only  two  men 
killed,  and  a  dozen  wounded,  which  we  carried  away 
with  us. 

We  often  displayed  great  temerity  in  attacking 
with  small  bodies  of  infantry,  and  were  seldom 
counter-attacked  on  these  occasions,  because,  we  sup- 
posed, the  enemy  feared  a  trap.  They  had  some 
grounds  for  these  fears.  On  one  occasion,  two  com- 
panies of  the  189th  regiment,  believing  that  a  trench 
of  the  enemy's  was  weakly  manned,  made  an  attack 
on  it.  They  caught  a  Tartar,  and  were  chased  by 
about  2,000  Germans,  who,  fully  believing  that  they 
were  about  to  penetrate  our  lines,  followed  the  fugi- 
tives right  up  to  the  edge  of  the  trench.  It  chanced, 
however,  that  the  officer  commanding  that  section 
had  his  doubts  about  the  wisdom  of  the  rash  attack, 
and  had  moved  up  a  full  regiment  to  meet  a  possible 
accident.     So  when  the  Germans  arrived  they  were 


SMALL  AFFAIRS  AND  PERSONAL  ADVENTURES      187 

received  with  an  iiiiexpected  fusillade,  which  killed 
the  greater  number  of  them,  and  terrified  the  others 
so  much  that  they  surrendered  at  once.  Two  men 
only  ran  back;  and,  strange  to  say,  they  both  es- 
caped, though  hundreds  of  shots  were  sent  after  them. 
But  in  war  I  have  noticed  that  temerity  and  cow- 
ardice are  often  self -punished,  and  bravery  rewarded. 
!N'ot  always  so,  alas!  I  hate  the  Germans  like  sin; 
but  I  was  not  sorry  to  see  these  two  plucky  fellows 
escape. 


CHAPTER  XVI 

A  NIGHT  ATTACK   ON"   A  BEIDGE-nEAD 

During  the  last  few  days  in  January  we  received 
strong  reinforcements,  mostly  recruits  and  reservists 
to  bring  up  the  regiments  to  their  normal  strength, 
the  losses  of  some  of  which  had  been  very  heavy: 
in  fact,  with  a  fairly  good  knowledge  of  military  his- 
tory, I  cannot  recall  that  in  any  previous  war  there 
have  been  so  many  instances  of  whole  battalions, 
batteries,  and  other  units,  being  completely  "  wiped 
out,"  to  use  the  modern  expressive  phrase.  In  sev- 
eral cases  it  is  said  that  entire  regiments  of  four  bat- 
talions each  (over  4,000  men  at  full  war  strength)' 
have  disappeared.  The  66th  (probably  Ersatz), 
and  their  41st  of  the  regular  line,  are  said  to  have 
met  this  fate :  and  many  complete  battalions  on  both 
sides  have  been  destroyed,  or  taken  prisoners  whole- 
sale. The  first  Russian  unit  to  which  I  was  at- 
tached, a  battery  of  horse  artillery,  was  practically 
rendered  non-existent;  and  other  batteries  were  lost 
on  the  actual  field  of  battle,  every  man  being  shot 
down,  and  the  guns  smashed,  or  taken  by  the  enemy. 
Ikfany  Russian  batteries  met  such  a  fate  as  that  de- 
scribed, as  they  were  often  subjected  to  the  fire  of 

guns  much  heavier  than  their  own ;  and,  indeed,  it  is 

188 


A  NIGHT  ATTACK  ON  A  BRIDGE-HEAD         189 

useless  to  withhold  the  fact  that  the  German  artillery 
is  altogether  superior  to  that  of  the  Russians. 

To  return  to  the  subject  of  the  Muscovite  losses. 
How  terrible  these  were  may  be  guessed  from  the 
returns  made  by  many  regiments.  I  do  not  purpose 
to  give  the  names,  or  regimental  numbers,  of  units, 
for  reasons  which  are  more  or  less  obvious.  Taking 
twenty-three  regiments,  contiguous  in  station  to  the 
position  occupied  by  my  division  in  the  middle  of 
January,  1915,  and  having,  at  the  commencement 
of  the  war,  a  total  combatant  strength  of  92,000  men, 
there  were  eight  regiments  which  could  not  parade 
1,000  men  each  —  that  is,  had  lost  three-fourths  of 
their  strength.  In  the  case  of  five  of  these  regiments 
the  bulk  of  the  missing  men  were  known  to  be  pris- 
oners of  war.  One  regiment  could  send  only  638 
men  to  the  trenches  —  less  than  two-thirds  of  a  bat- 
talion. The  four  regiments  which  had  been  most 
fortunate  were  each  more  than  1,000  men  short  of 
their  proper  complement;  and  to  bring  up  the 
twenty-three  regiments  to  their  original  war  strength 
50,000  men  were  required !  They  got  40,000  men ; 
and  at  least  250,000  were  sent  to  the  Austrian  area, 
and  to  the  district  of  East  Prussia  near  Suvalki. 
Many  of  these  recruits  came  to  the  front  without 
arms,  and  received  those  which  had  belonged  to  the 
killed  and  to  men  in  hospital.  There  was  so  great 
a  shortage  of  arms  that  some  battalions  were  actually 
furnished  with  rifles  and  cartridges  taken  from  the 
Germans.  I  suspect  that  Russia  would  have  much 
vaster  armies  in  the  field  if  she  could  find  rifles  and 


190       AN  ENGLISHMAN  IN  THE  RUSSIAN  RANKS 

cannon  for  them.  It  is  a  very  unpleasant  fact,  but; 
still  a  fact,  that  Russia  is  outgunned  by  her  enemy 
to  so  great  an  extent  that  the  Germans  can  place  five 
cannon  against  her  three;  and  that  on  any  part  of 
the  front  where  the  titanic  struggle  is  going  on. 

In  one  thing  only  is  Russia  the  stronger  of  the  two 
Powers,  and  that  is  in  her  cavalry:  and  this  force 
has  not,  to  my  knowledge,  suffered  a  disaster,  even 
on  a  small  scale.  I^ot  one  of  her  mounted  regiments 
has  been  cut  up,  or  even  sustained  abnormal  losses; 
but  they  have  certainly  destroyed  more  than  one  of 
Germany's  cavalry  regiments ;  and  that  in  fair  open 
fight.  The  Russian  cavalry  has  charged,  success- 
fully, all  classes  of  troops  —  mounted  men,  infan- 
try and  artillery.  So  much  for  the  paper  tacticians 
who  have  asserted  that  the  days  of  cavalry  charges 
and  hand-to-hand  fighting  are  over.  They  are  clearly 
mistaken,  as  has  been  shown  East  and  West  in  this 
war,  which  I  suppose  all  will  admit  is  the  War  of 
Wars. 

Cavalry  actions  in  the  East  have  been  almost 
purely  cavalry  actions.  The  mounted  rifleman,  who 
played  so  important  a  part  in  the  Boer  War,  was 
singularly  absent  in  all  the  actions  I  witnessed.  It 
is  true  that  the  cavalry  was  armed  like  the  ancient 
dragoons,  with  a  long  fire-arm  (the  "  dragoon  "  soon 
gave  place  to  the  musket) ;  but  in  all  their  charges 
they  relied  on  the  lance  and  the  sabre;  and  it  was 
with  these  weapons  that  the  fights  were  decided. 
In  some  battles  the  German  infantry  was  sabred  in 
hundreds;  and  the  lances  of  the  Cossacks  accounted 


A  NIGHT  ATTACK  ON  A  BRIDGE-HEAD         191 

for  thousands.  The  Kaiser's  men  learned  to  dread 
both  these  instruments  of  death. 

The  receiving,  and  shaking  into  their  places,  of 
recruits  occupied  a  good  deal  of  our  time  in  January : 
and  the  Germans,  on  their  side,  evidently  received, 
not  only  a  great  many  recruits,  but  entire  divisions 
of  infantry,  with  immense  numbers  of  guns,  many 
of  these  being  siege  pieces.  Both  sides  had  prac- 
tically new  armies  in  the  field  before  the  end  of  the 
month;  but  while  on  the  part  of  the  Kussians  the 
men  were  fine  strong  fellows  of  full  military  age 
(none  of  them  seemed  to  be  under  twenty  years  of 
age),  hundreds  of  the  Germans  were  immature  lads 
of  very  boyish  appearande.  We  often  got  near 
enough  together  to  see  the  whites  of  one  another's 
eyes  —  that  is  how  I  know  what  they  were  like. 
These  boys,  however,  fought  like  little  vipers;  and 
were,  moreover,  amongst  the  cruellest  scoundrels  in 
a  cruel  army.  Where  boys  fail  in  an  army  is  that 
they  cannot  bear  prolonged  physical  strain. 

It  was  reported  that  there  was  fighting  on  every 
part  of  our  front,  from  Caucasia  to  the  Baltic;  but 
I  could  not  hear  that  any  great  battle  had  been 
fought,  or  any  important  results  obtained.  The 
fighting  with  which  I  was  iramediately  concerned 
was  a  number  of  small  affairs  designed  to  destroy 
the  enemy's  posts  and  advanced  positions.  They 
were  pushing  forward  a  good  many  small  parties, 
probably  with  an  ulterior  object ;  and  it  was  thought 
advisable  to  give  them  a  check. 

The  first  action  was  an  artillery  duel,  which  com- 


192       AN  ENGLISHMAN  IN  THE  RUSSIAN  RANKS 

menced  at  a  longer  range  than  was  usual.  The  Ger- 
mans opened  fire  with  a  dozen  or  fourteen  guns  at  a 
distance  of  seven  versts.  The  projectiles  they  used 
weighed  about  60  pounds,  and  annoyed  us  a  good 
deal.  They  blew  in  about  30  yards  of  trench,  kill- 
ing a  score  of  men:  and  did  much  other  damage. 
Our  field  pieces  failed  to  reduce  their  fire,  and  we 
sent  to  the  rear  for  some  6-in  guns,  which  were  sup- 
posed to  have  been  bought  from  a  European  Power : 
they  were  certainly  not  of  Kussian  make.  We  had 
also  a  very  old  Krupp  gun  of  about  7-inch  calibre, 
which  probably  spoiled  the  beauty  of  its  old  masters. 
While  these  guns  were  being  brought  up  and  got 
into  position,  which  took  some  time,  six  batteries  of 
field-guns  made  a  gallant  dash  forward,  and  got  to 
within  about  2,500  to  3,000  yards  of  the  Germans, 
and  galled  them  so  much  that  they  were  fain  to  turn 
some  of  their  heavy  pieces  upon  them;  by  which  a 
great  many  of  the  gunners  were  killed  and  three  of 
the  guns  knocked  over.  Other  batteries,  however, 
^  were  pushed  forward ;  and  when  our  heavy  guns  were 
■  brought  into  action  the  Germans  began  to  suffer  visi- 
bly. Through  glasses  we  saw  one  of  their  big  pieces 
knocked  up  so  that  the  mu2;zle  pointed  to  the  sky. 
It  remained  in  this  position  for  some  time,  but  ulti- 
mately fell  over  on  its  side.  Three  other  guns  were 
so  badly  damaged  that  they  could  not  be  fired ;  while 
the  gunners  flew  right  and  left,  and  upwards,  a  mass 
of  smashed  bodies  and  dismembered  limbs.  In  less 
than  an  hour  we  had  put  the  whole  battery  com- 
pletely out  of  action :  but  we  on  our  side  had  suffered 


A  NIGHT  ATTACK  ON  A  BRIDGE-HEAD         193 

severely.  Horses,  guns  and  a  great  many  men  were 
destroyed. 

The  next  day  we  received  warning  by  field  tele- 
phone that  aeroplanes  were  hovering  over  the  Rus- 
sian lines.  One  appeared  in  front  of  us  at  three 
o'clock  in  the  afternoon,  and  was  repeatedly  shot  at. 
It  braved  the  fire  in  an  impudent  manner,  and 
dropped  some  bombs  which  did  no  damage.  Our 
gunners  cut  away  a  ditch-bank,  so  that  the  breech 
of  the  gun  could  be  lowered  until  the  muzzle  was  ele- 
vated fully  60  degrees,  and  sent  a  shot  very  near  the 
air-craft.  It  was  amusing  to  see  how  quickly  it 
bolted  when  it  found  itself  in  danger.  A  great  many 
rifle-shots  were  fired  at  it;  but  it  was  too  far 
away,  and  if  it  were  struck  at  all,  it  was  not  in- 
jured. 

Considering  how  much  these  machines  were  used 
in  the  West  (according  to  the  old  newspapers  which 
I  have  looked  up)  it  issurprisingtha  t  we  saw  so  little 
of  them  in  Poland.  After  this  time  I  heard  that  the 
Russians  had  many  aeroplanes,  including  some  of  the 
largest  that  have  been  made ;  and  I  saw  one  of  these 
huge  things.  It  seemed  to  me  to  be  very  unwieldy ; 
but  that  might  have  been  owing  to  the  awkwardness 
of  the  navigators,  who  never  seemed  to  be  so  skilful 
as  those  of  France,  England  and  Germany.  I  never 
heard  of,  far  less  saw,  them  doing  much  with  this 
species  of  war  engine.  They  never,  I  think,  bom- 
barded any  German  fortresses  or  towns,  nor  did  the 
Germans  do  more  in  this  quarter  than  occasionally 
drop  bombs  on  troops,  and  transports.     The  only  ex- 


194       AN  ENGLISHMAN  IN  THE  RUSSIAN  RANKS 

ception  I  can  recollect  was  a  visit  of  a  number  o£ 
machines  to  Warsaw. 

Of  course  the  rivers  and  streams  in  Russia  are 
bridged ;  but  not  to  the  extent  the  waterways  of  more 
highly  developed  countries  usually  are.  Many  of 
the  rivers  are  shallow,  and  fords  are  common,  and 
more  relied  on  than  bridges.  Where  bridges  did 
exist,  those  of  wood  were  frequently  destroyed  by 
both  armies;  but  the  more  elaborate  structures  of 
brick  and  stone  were  sometimes  defended  by  "  bridge- 
heads." 

A  "  bridge-head  "  in  the  old  days  of  military  en- 
gineering consisted  of  a  lunette,  or  a  redan  with 
flanks,  constructed  on  the  near  side  of  the  stream, 
unless  some  peculiar  features  of  the  ground  necessi- 
tated the  holding  of  the  far  side:  and  this  form  of 
construction  was  generally  followed  by  the  Russians, 
with  the  addition  of  trenches  and  wire  entanglements 
and  flanking  works. 

There  were  frequent  desperate  fights  for  these 
field-works ;  and  more  than  one  of  those  engagements 
which  may  be  denominated  "  battles  "  commenced  in 
attempts  to  capture  a  bridge-head,  or  endeavours  to 
establish  one.  I  use  the  word  "  battles  "  advisedly, 
because  battles  in  this  war  have  generally  been  pro- 
longed struggles  for  the  possession  of  trenches,  often 
lasting  many  days,  and  sometimes  weeks.  A  battle, 
in  the  sense  of  two  armies  meeting  in  the  open  field, 
and  deciding  the  action  within  the  limits  of  a  day 
or  two,  is  a  thing  almost  unknown,  so  far,  in  this  war. 

Most  of  the  bridge-heads  were  constructed  by  the 


A  NIGHT  ATTACK  ON  A  BRIDGE-HEAD         195 

Eussians.  A  few,  generally  small  ones,  were  made 
by  the  Germans;  and  some  were  captured  by  them, 
and  the  defences  afterwards  elaborated.  In  this  last- 
named  case,  they  proved  a  decided  annoyance,  if  not 
~,  danger,  to  the  Russians:  and,  about  this  time,  we 
:  had  orders  to  destroy,  or  recapture,  a  number  of  them. 
Most  of  these  were  situated  on  the  rivers  Vistula, 
^arta,  Pilica  and  Bzura.  The  numerous  tributaries 
of  these  great  streams  had  many  fords :  bridge-heads 
were,  therefore,  useless  on  brooks  and  rivulets,  as 
they  could  be  easily  turned.  The  most  important 
works  of  this  class  were  on  the  two  first-mentioned 
rivers;  and  detachments  were  generally  sent  out  to 
make  simultaneous  attacks  on  a  number  of  them, 
as  this  method  greatly  interfered  with,  if  it  did  not 
entirely  stop,  the  enemy  sending  supporting  parties 
to  any  one  point  of  the  oifensive  line. 

On  the  27th  of  the  month  a  number  of  detachments 
went  out  at  night  to  destroy  as  many  of  the  enemy's 
posts  as  possible.  These  parties,  in  our  district,  each 
consisted  of  a  battalion  at  reduced  strength  (600  or 
700  men),  and  about  fifty  sappers  with  hand  charges 
■  of  explosives.  We  had  been  moved  out  the  previous 
day,  and  destroyed  a  number  of  temporary  bridges 
for  infantry  on  a  stream  the  name  of  which  did  not 
transpire.  "We  were  directed,  when  retiring,  to  break 
the  ice  behind  us:  for  the  streams  were  all  frozen 
over,  though  the  larger  rivers  were  not,  having  only 
a  fringe  of  ice  on  either  bank.  The  real  objective  of 
our  expedition  was  three  bridge-heads  on  the  Warta 
protecting  three  bridges  constructed  for  the  passage 


J96      AN  ENGLISHMAN  IN  THE  RUSSIAN  RANKS 

of  infantry,  cavalry  and  artillery.  These  bridges 
[were  known  to  be  not  much  in  use  at  the  time ;  but 
3they  were  likely  to  greatly  benefit  the  enemy  later  on. 

Though  some  snow  had  fallen  during  the  day  the 
night  was  clear  and  bright,  and  there  was  more  moon- 
light than  we  wanted;  but  the  Germans  were  evi-  ^ 
dently  off  their  guard.  The  plank-bridges  on  the 
brooks  had  not  even  been  watched  by  a  few  videttes ; 
and  nothing  seemed  to  show  that  they  knew  we  had 
been  engaged  in  tearing  them  down.  There  was  an 
outpost  near  the  first  bridge-head  on  the  Warta,  be- 
yond the  village  of  Nishkinova,  and  half  a  section 
was  sent  to  try  and  get  between  it  and  the  bridge. 
The  enemy  must  have  taken  this  party  for  one  of 
their  own  patrols,  for  they  took  no  notice  of  it. 

The  half -section  found  two  sentinels  on  the  bridge 
who  were  completely  surprised.  One  fellow  dropped 
his  rifle  and  held  up  his  hands:  the  other  began  to 
cry  out,  but  was  promptly  stopped  by  a  bayonet- 
thrust,  and  his  body  put  in  the  shadow  under  the 
parapet.  The  first  man  begged  his  life,  and  was 
told  that  it  would  be  granted  him  if  he  shut  his 

mouth,  otherwise He  took  the  hint:  and  we  -• 

listened  to  hear  if  an  alarm  had  been  given.  Ap- 
parently it  had  not  been,  for  we  could  hear  men 
singing  a  rousing  chorus:  and  the  white  sheet  of 
snow  between  us  and  the  outwork  was  unbroken  by 
any  perceptible  object.  To  the  right  we  could  just 
perceive  the  second  division  of  the  bridge-head:  the 
third  section  was  further  up  the  stream. 

There  had  been  no  previous  reconnoitring  by  any 


A  NIGHT  ATTACK  ON  A  BRIDGE-HEAD         197 

member  of  our  detachment,  at  any  rate  —  and  we 
had  no  knowledge  of  the  numbers  or  disposition  of 
the  enemy.  Judging  by  appearances  there  would 
be  at  least  400  men  in  each  work;  and  there  might 
be  4,000  in  reserve,  somewhere  behind.  I  could  see 
that  we  were  taking  a  good  deal  on  trust ;  and  how 
we  were  to  pass  the  wire  entanglements  without  great 
loss  puzzled  me.  ^e  had  no  artillery  to  pave  the 
way. 

It  had  been  arranged  that  the  firing  of  a  rocket 
should  be  the  signal  for  the  simultaneous  attack  on 
the  bridge-head,  or  three  sections  of  the  head:  for 
they  were  connected  by  an  entrenched  line.  The 
bridge  on  the  left,  the  one  we  first  reached,  was  an 
old  stone  structure;  the  other  two  were  made  of 
planks  supported  by  boats  in  place  of  pontoons.  A 
battalion,  and  a  section  of  engineers,  was  detailed  to 
attack  each  bridge ;  but  the  arrival  of  the  three  divi- 
sions was  not  well  timed,  and  we  had  a  long  and 
anxious  wait,  being,  I  must  admit,  more  fortunate 
than  skilful. 

We  observed  that  the  German  patrol  we  had  evaded 
walked  right  up  to  the  main  body  of  our  battalion, 
and  were  quietly  made  prisoners  of.  They  evidently 
mistook  our  men  for  some  of  their  own  body. 

It  was  not  until  two  o'clock  a.m.  that  we  saw  the 
rocket  shoot  upward  and  heard  the  dull  explosion 
of  its  head ;  and  immediately  we  rushed  towards  the 
earthwork  in  front  of  us,  the  apex  of  which  was  only 
about  200  yards  from  the  foot  of  the  bridge. 

The  surprise  of  the  enemy  must  have  been  com- 


198       AN  ENGLISHMAN  IN  THE  RUSSIAN  RANKS 

plete :  for  although  we  heard  rapid  firing  to  the  right 
of  us,  where  the  other  two  sections  were  operating, 
we  were  suffered  to  rush  right  up  to  the  wire  en- 
tanglement before  a  shot  was  fired  at  us,  and  we 
passed  the  obstruction  and  entered  the  trench  before 
a  man  of  us  dropped. 

There  were  not  many  men  in  the  trench,  and  these 
were  all  bayoneted  in  less  than  a  minute;  but  even 
in  this  short  time  the  enemy  in  the  earthwork  behind 
the  trench  recovered  themselves,  and  opened  fire  on 
us  with  both  rifles  and  ordnance.  Fortunately  we 
were  well  spread  out,  and  our  losses  were  not  great; 
the  chief,  and  most  regrettable  of  them  being  Colonel 
Krastnovitz,  whose  head  was  blown  off.  He  was  a 
very  brave  man,  and  excellent  officer;  and  his  death 
was  a  great  personal  loss  to  us  all  —  to  none  more 
than  to  myself.  I  did  not  see  him  fall;  but  I  soon 
became  aware  that  he  was  down.  The  Major  was 
not  with  us,  having  been  previously  wounded,  and 
the  command  of  the  battalion  devolved  on  a  Captain, 
quite  a  young  man,  but  energetic  and  brave,  and  well 
acquainted  with  his  work. 

The  bridge-head,  considering  its  strength,  and  the 
numerous  supporting  works,  fell  into  our  hands  with 
astonishing  ease.  Its  capture  did  not  cost  us  more 
than  100  men.  We  killed  200,  captured  eighty,  and 
about  1,000  ran  away.  The  pontoon  on  the  extreme 
right  was  also  captured,  but  with  some  difficulty  and 
loss;  while  the  defenders  of  the  centre  bridge  drove 
back  its  assaulters  with  the  loss  of  nearly  half  their 


A  NIGHT  ATTACK  ON  A  BRIDGE-HEAD         199 

strength:  and  it  becoming  certain  that  there  was  a 
strong  supporting  body  in  the  German  rear  which 
was  fast  coming  up,  we  received  orders  to  destroy 
all  we  could,  and  retire. 

There  was  not  much  time  for  destruction.  We 
perceived  at  least  four  battalions  of  the  enemy  close 
upon  us;  and  their  artillery  began  to  fire  into  the 
gorge  of  the  work.  So  we  destroyed  the  breach-blocks 
of  some  of  the  guns  we  had  captured,  and  ran  for  it, 
taking  our  prisoners  with  us,  though  most  of  them 
afterwards  escaped. 

Our  engineers  had  discovered  that  the  bridge  was 
mined ;  and  they  blew  it  up  so  quickly  after  we  had 
passed,  that  I  am  not  sure  one  or  two  of  our  men  did 
not  go  up  with  it.  I  know  that  I  had  an  unpleas- 
antly narrow  escape  myself,  besides  being  half  suf- 
focated with  dust  and  smoke.  I  afterwards  learned 
that  one  of  the  wooden  pontoons  was  destroyed ;  but 
on  the  whole  the  expedition  was  not  as  successful  as 
it  should  have  been.  It  had  been  undertaken  with 
too  weak  a  force ;  and  should  have  been  accompanied 
by  artillery.  We  got  away  with  a  total  loss  to  the 
'  three  columns  of  about  800  men,  or  more  than  a  third 
of  their  number. 

It  was  a  night  of  curious  adventures,  and  singular 
mistakes  on  the  part  of  the  enemy.  For  we  had 
not  retreated  more  than  four  versts  when  a  squad 
of  thirty  Prussian  hussars  rode  up  to  us,  mistaking 
us  for  a  battalion  of  their  own  countrymen.  When 
they  discovered  their  mistake  they  tried  to  escape 


200       AN  ENGLISHMAN  IN  THE  RUSSIAN  RANKS 

by  spreading  out,  and  galloping  away  full  tilt. 
Twenty  of  them  and  a  dozen  horses  went  down  be- 
fore our  fire :  the  rest  got  away. 

I  understood  that  the  Russian  commander  was 
not  well  pleased  with  the  results  of  this  expedition; 
but  nobody  was  so  much  to  blame  as  himself  for  not 
sending  a  stronger  detachment,  and  for  not  ade- 
quately supporting  what  he  did  send.  The  whole 
force  was  a  flying  detachment,  and  as  such  ought  to 
have  been  differently  constituted.  For  instance  we 
ought  to  have  had  a  strong  body  of  Cossacks  with 
US ;  and  that  very  useful  corps  ought  to  have  linked 
us  up  with  headquarters. 

As  it  was  we  had  to  make  a  forced  march  well 
into  the  next  day,  bivouac  in  the  snow  on  short  com- 
mons, and  continue  our  march  before  we  were  half 
rested.  We  passed  through  several  towns  and  vil- 
lages, in  which  we  saw  groups  of  starving  people. 
Many  of  them  followed  us,  in  dread  of  the  Germans 
whom  they  believed  were  closely  pursuing  us;  but 
I  think  those  acute  gentlemen  were  far  behind,  prob- 
ably suspecting  a  trap;  and  I  have  firmly  believed 
that  it  was  only  the  daring  presumption  and  impu- 
dence of  our  proceedings  that  saved  us.  Had  the 
Germans  known  how  weak  we  were,  and  at  so  great 
a  distance  from  our  base,  it  is  probable  that  we  should 
have  tasted  the  delights  of  a  German  military  prison. 


CHAPTER  XVII 

THE    FIGHTING    NEAE    SKYERMEVICE    ON    THE    3eD, 

4th,  and  Sth  PEBEUAET 

We  rejoined  headquarters  in  the  early  morning  of 
the  30th,  all  much  exhausted  for  lack  of  food  and 
rest;  but  there  was  no  respite.  !N^ews  was  to  hand 
that  the  Germans  were  closing  in  on  us  on  all  sides, 
and  that  we  must  fall  back  on  Lovicz  without  a  mo- 
ment's delay.  At  the  same  time  I  learned  that  Lodz 
was  in  the  hands  of  the  Germans,  had  been  for  some 
time,  and  was  called  Keu-Breslau  by  them.  This, 
and  other  items  of  information,  tended  to  confirm 
what  for  some  time  I  had  suspected,  that  our  division 
had  been  nearly  surrounded  by  the  enemy :  and  that, 
for  some  reason  which  did  not  appear,  we  had  been 
kept  in  a  position  of  grave  danger  for  several  weeks. 
The  old  horse  I  had  obtained  from  a  Cossack,  as 
related  on  a  previous  page,  had  disappeared  —  boiled 
down  to  soup  by  the  men,  I  imagine ;  in  which  case 
I  had  my  share  of  him,  and  can  bear  witness  to  his 
gamy  flavour.  In  consequence  of  this  little  acci- 
dent (or  incident)  of  war,  I  was  again  numbered 
amongst  the  footmen,  and  had  to  trudge  with  the 
others  to  Lovicz.  I  started  exhausted,  and  arrived 
nearly  dead.     All  I  can  remember  of  that  dreadful 

march  was  that  the  road  was  crowded  with  troops  of 

201 


202       AN  ENGLISHMAN  IN  THE  RUSSIAN  RANKS 

all  arms,  and  the  snow  which  covered  it  was  trampled 
and  churned  into  a  thick  sludge  of  a  nearly  black 
hue;  marching  through  which  was  a  tormenting 
misery. 

When  we  arrived  in  the  vicinity  of  the  town  we 
were  halted  near  a  group  of  barns,  and  told  we  might 
billet  in  them.  I  entered  one  with  about  a  hundred 
of  the  men,  dropped  on  some  dirty  wet  straw,  and 
fell  asleep  on  the  instant.  How  long  I  slumbered  I 
do  not  clearly  know.  I  was  awakened  by  the  rough 
shaking  and  prodding  of  a  soldier,  who  had  a  basin 
of  steaming  hot  coffee  in  his  hand,  and  a  great  hunch 
of  coarse  bread,  which  he  offered  to  me.  I  swallowed 
them  quite  eagerly,  for  I  was  nearly  starved,  and  went 
outside,  where  the  men  were  falling  in. 

The  battalion  was  now  so  reduced  that  there  were 
only  about  300  men  on  parade.  What  had  become 
of  the  others  I  do  not  know ;  but  I  think  that  a  good 
many  prisoners  were  taken  during  our  retreat. 
There  was  only  one  officer  left  with  whom  I  could 
communicate.  Lieutenant  Sawmine;  and  only  two 
other  subalterns  that  were  with  the  battalion  when 
I  joined  it.  A  stranger,  a  Major  in  rank,  had  been 
put  in  command.  He  had  been,  I  believe,  a  Staff 
Officer.  We  were  still  attached  to  a  regiment  which 
had  lost  one  of  its  battalions  en  masse  —  as  prisoners 
I  heard. 

Before  we  marched  off  the  companies  were 
equalized;  which  brought  us  up  to  a  little  over  400 
per  battalion,  or  about  1,700  for  the  regiment,  so  the 
losses  had  been  terrible.     Then  another  ration  of 


r 


THE  FIGHTING  NEAR  SKYERMEVICE  203 

bread,  and  120  cartridges,  were  served  out  to  each 
man,  and  we  were  marched  to  a  railway-station  on 
the  outskirts  of  the  town  and  entrained.  Sawmine 
said  that  nobody  in  the  regiment  had  the  least  idea 
where  we  were  going;  but  one  of  those  vague  notions 
which  seem  to  instinctively  invade  the  minds  of  sol- 
diers led  the  men  to  believe  that  they  were  destined 
for  some  great  enterprise. 

I  was  still  so  tired  that  I  was  no  sooner  in  the 
train  than  I  went  to  sleep  again,  as  I  believe  most  of 
the  men  did.  "When  I  awoke  the  train  was  merely 
crawling  along,  and  the  sound  of  heavy  artillery  fir- 
ing came  in  through  the  open  windows.  For  we 
:were  packed  in  so  tightly  that  the  men  were  com- 
pelled to  keep  the  windows  open  for  air,  though  the 
wind  was  icy  cold.  Almost  immediately  the  train 
began  to  run  back ;  and  often  it  went  on  a  few  versts, 
stopped  for  haK  an  hour,  and  then  went  on  again. 
Sawmine  who  sat  beside  me  said  that  the  train  had 
been  going  thus  for  many  hours,  sometimes  advanc- 
ing, then  halting,  retiring,  and  so  on.  He  had  been 
asleep  himself,  and  did  not  know  how  far  we  had 
come,  or  where  we  were.  Looking  out  of  the  win- 
dows we  could  see  four  long  trains  ahead  of  us,  and 
one  about  half  a  verst  behind  us.  There  were  also 
two  pilot  engines  on  the  line,  one  of  which  had  a 
large  signal  flag  attached  to  it. 

The  distant  firing  was  heavy  enough  to  shake  the 
train ;  but  we  could  see  nothing  of  the  fighting.  It 
was  drawing  towards  dusk  on  the  evening  of  the  2nd 
February  when  we  saw  the  men  in  the  trains  ahead 


204        AN  ENGLISHMAN  IN  THE  RUSSIAN  RANKS 

of  US  getting  out:  and  presently  our  turn  came. 
There  was  more  than  1,000  men  in  each  train,  the 
officers  riding  with  their  men.  We  soon  discovered 
that  we  all  belonged  to  the  same  division;  and  we 
were  formed  up  in  the  open  fields  beside  the  line. 
Before  this  manoeuvre  was  completed  it  was  nearly 
dark ;  though  as  the  moon  was  about  the  full  it  gave 
considerable  light  through  the  clouds  —  at  least  when 
it  was  quite  up;  and  we  could  see  dimly  over  the 
country  across  which  we  were  marched. 

We  were  kept  on  the  march  all  night,  with  other 
columns  ahead  of  us,  a  circumstance  which  led  to 
many  short  halts,  and  a  good  deal  of  "  tailing  off." 
About  four  o'clock  in  the  morning  we  were  brought 
up  into  what  seemed  to  be  a  line  of  battalion  columns 
at  deploying  intervals.  We  could  now  see  the  bright 
red  flashes  of  the  guns ;  and  occasionally  a  shell  fell 
in  front  of  us.  An  officer  who  was  known  to  Saw- 
mine  passed  along,  and  stopped  to  have  a  minute  or 
two's  chat  with  the  Lieutenant;  and  thus  I  learned 
that  we  were  near  the  town  of  Skyermevice,  and  on 
ground  I  knew  something  of.  The  Germans  were 
said  to  be  massing  in  vast  columns;  but  so  far  the 
fight  was  confined  to  the  artillery;  and  this,  which 
we  had  supposed  was  on  our  front,  was  really  on  the 
left  flank.     We  were  ordered  to  lie  down  and  wait. 

About  six  o'clock  we  were  again  ordered  to  ad- 
vance ;  and  after  marching  six  versts  occupied  a  line 
of  shallow  trenches.  These  trenches  had  recently 
been  held  by  other  troops  —  there  could  be  no  mis- 
taking the  nature  of  the  dull  stain-patches  on  the 


/ 


THE  FIGHTING  NEAR  SKYERMEVICE  205 

snow:  and  though  our  dead  and  wo*unded  had  been 
removed,  there  were  hundreds  of  the  enemy's  slain 
lying  in  front,  as  far  as  the  eye  could  see  them,  when 
daylight  came. 

And  when  light  did  come  the  Germans  were  not 
long  in  discovering  us;  nor  were  we  in  perceiving 
that  there  was  a  strong  line  of  entrenchments  in  front 
of  us  occupied  by  our  forces.  No  doubt  the  men 
whose  places  we  had  taken  had  gone  forward  to 
strengthen  this  line.  The  enemy  was  shelling  it 
vigorously,  and  devoting  no  small  part  of  their  atten- 
tion to  us;  and  some  of  the  projectiles  which  fell 
amongst  us  were  enormous  in  size,  and  terrific  in 
sound  when  they  exploded;  but  they  did  not  cause 
very  appalling  casualties.  Sometimes  a  huge  cloud 
of  dust  and  black  smoke  rose  to  a  great  height,  and 
obscured  the  view ;  but  when  it  cleared  away,  though 
there  might  be  a  large  hole  in  the  ground,  or  20  yards 
of  trench  blown  clean  away,  there  were  never  more 
than  two  or  three  dead  and  wounded.  Once  or  twice 
an  unfortunate  man  disappeared  entirely,  blown  to 
atoms.  I  should  scarcely  have  realized  what  the 
fate  of  these  men  was  had  not  one  of  them  stood 
close  to  me;  and  I  noticed,  directly  after  the  ex- 
plosion, that  I  was  covered  with  minute  spots  of 
blood,  none  of  them  bigger  than  a  pin's  head.  This 
man's  body  acted  as  a  shield  to  me  and  saved  my  life. 
The  hot  blast  of  the  shell  momentarily  stopped  my 
breathing,  and  gave  me  a  tremendous  shock;  but  I 
was  not  much  hurt.  Two  men  on  the  other  side  were 
instantly  killed,  one  of  them  being  shockingly  muti- 


206        AN  ENGLISHMAN  IN  THE  RUSSIAN  RANKS 

lated.  Strange  how  these  things  are  ordained!  If 
I  had  not  been  bending  at  the  moment  to  insert  a 
cartridge  in  my  rifle,  I  should  probably  have  made  a 
fourth  victim. 

These  big  shells  were  certainly  more  than  a  foot 
in  diameter.  One  which  fell  outside  the  trench,  and 
did  not  explode,  appeared  to  be  about  15  inches  in 
diameter,  and  a  yard  long.  A  good  many  of  these 
big  shells  were  fired  at  us ;  but  most  of  the  projectiles 
were  from  field  artillery,  each  weighing  16  or  18 
pounds  only. 

On  the  side  of  the  Russians  I  did  not  see  any  gun 
bigger  than  a  6-inch;  but  our  artillery  was  well 
served,  did  great  execution,  and  put  many  of  the 
German  guns  out  of  action.  Motor-driven  batteries 
were  used  on  both  sides ;  and  from  what  I  saw  of  the 
action  of  guns  so  mounted,  I  think  they  must  soon 
largely  supplant  horse-drawn  batteries,  in  open,  flat 
countries  at  least.  People  who  love  horses  will  be 
glad  of  this :  for  artillery  horses  suffer  frightfully  in 
action ;  and  it  is  not  always  possible  to  put  them  out 
of  their  misery  quickly. 

When  men  are  in  trenches  they  see  little  of  one 
another  except  their  immediate  neighbours;  but  one 
gets  to  know  the  signs  which  indicate  anything  un- 
usual, even  in  these  rat-burrows;  and  about  ten 
o'clock  we  became  aware  that  the  men  in  the  ad- 
vanced trenches  were  on  the  alert.  We  could  see 
nothing ;  but  the  terrific  rifle-fire  told  its  own  story ; 
and  above  the  almost  deafening  rattle  of  the  musketry 
we  could  hear  the  shouts  of  the  Germans,  and  the 


THE  FIGHTING  NEAR  SKYERMEVICE  207 

cotmter-cheers  of  our  own  men  as  the  enemy  retired. 
The  firing  did  not  last  longer  than  ten  minutes.  In 
the  excitement  of  the  moment  many  of  the  men  in  the 
second  line  crowded  out  of  their  trenches  to  endeavour 
to  see  what  was  going  on ;  and  the  officers  (much  re- 
duced in  number,  as  I  have  already  hinted)  had 
great  difficulty  in  getting  them  to  return  to  cover. 
The  Eussian  soldier  is  usually  a  most  docile  and  obe- 
dient creature ;  but  I  never  saw  him  in  a  state  of  so 
great  excitement  as  on  this  day.  Eumour  travelled 
from  ranlv  to  rank,  that  on  the  issue  of  the  fight  de- 
pended the  fate  of  Warsaw:  and  Warsaw  is  to  the 
Poles,  of  whom  there  were  thousands  in  this  part  of 
the  field,  almost  a  sacred  place.  But  Pole,  or  Kuss, 
all  were  alike  in  their  eagerness  to  save  the  capital  of 
Poland  from  the  humiliation  of  the  hated  German's 
tread.  I  do  not  know  if  the  fact  is  quite  realized  in 
England;  but  the  Russian  (including  the  Pole,  and, 
especially,  the  Cossack)  is  Asiatic  in  everything  ex- 
cept his  birth ;  and,  like  all  Asiatics,  is  extremely  de- 
vout and  extremely  bigoted :  therefore  he  is  a  fanatic : 
and  this  present  war,  affecting,  as  it  does,  the  liberty 
of  his  country,  is  to  him  a  sacred  war  —  a  contest 
for  the  safety  of  his  religion,  and  sanctified  by  the 
blessings  of  his  priests.  I  emphasize  this  point:  so 
far  as  the  Russian  is  concerned  the  war  now  devastat- 
ing Europe  is  a  religious  war.  He  will  fight  till  he 
wins :  and  I  am  confident  that  the  victory  will  greatly 
strengthen  and  consolidate  the  Muscovite  Empire. 
Never  before  have  the  Pole  and  the  Russ  stood  side  by 
side  as  they  are  standing  now:  never  before  have 


208        AN  ENGLISHMAN  IN  THE  RUSSIAN  RANKS 

they  fought  for  a  common  cause  and  bled  together  for 
it ;  never  before  stood  up  to  face  a  danger  as  brethren. 
This  war  will  make  Russian  and  Pole  one  people. 
I  am  quite  convinced  of  it.  Kftj  years  ago  Polish 
women  stood  up  with  the  men  to  fight  the  Russian 
oppressor :  in  this  present  desperate  struggle  they 
have  fought  side  by  side  with  the  former  oppressor. 
ISTot  twenty  yards  from  me,  in  the  trenches  before 
Skyermevice,  two  sturdy  Amazons  handled  rifle  and 
bayonet  (weapons  dropped  by  dead  soldiers)  with  the 
strength  and  skill  of  old  soldiers;  and  others  in  the 
rear  attended  Russian  wounded  with  the  same  care 
and  attention  they  lavished  upon  their  fathers  and 
brothers. 

About  an  hour  after  the  first  attack,  a  second  was 
made  on  our  position  by  the  Germans :  and  this  was 
even  more  fierce  and  determined  than  the  previous 
affair.  Forced  on  by  pressure  from  the  rear,  the 
first  ranks  of  the  enemy  were  actually  precipitated 
into  the  trenches,  and  promptly  bayoneted  by  our 
men.  So  great  was  the  number  thus  destroyed  that 
the  trench  was  actually  filled  up  in  several  places,  a 
thing  that  occurred  more  than  once  on  previous  occa- 
sions. 

This  was  one  of  the  most  determined  efforts  the 
Germans  made  to  break  the  Russian  line  by  sheer 
weight  of  numbers.  The  rear  columns  of  the  enemy 
determinedly  forced  the  leading  companies  on.  I 
saw  several  entire  companies  absolutely  forced  on  to 
the  Russian  bayonets  where  they  perished  to  the 
last  man.     As  on  other  similar  occasions,  it  was  not 


THE  FIGHTING  NEAR  SKYERMEVICE  209 

a  fight,  but  a  massacre.  The  imprisoned  Germans, 
sandwiched  bet\veen  their  own  men  and  ours,  and 
unable  to  escape,  threw  down  their  arms  in  sections 
and  begged  for  mercy.  They  put  their  hands  above 
their  heads ;  went  down  on  their  knees,  in  some  cases 
flung  themselves  prostrate,  and  in  others  clung  con- 
vulsively to  the  legs  of  their  destroyers ;  but  in  every 
case  met  the  same  fate:  they  were  stabbed  through 
and  through.  Some  few  of  them,  including  most  of 
the  officers,  fought  madly  for  their  lives :  it  only  de- 
layed their  fate  a  few  moments. 

The  first  company  down,  that  which  had  forced  it 
forward  was  compelled  to  take  its  place,  and  meet  a 
similar  tragical  end.  At  least  three  companies  of 
one  battalion  were  destroyed  one  after  another  in  this 
way :  and  I  think  the  fourth  company  was  very  nearly 
annihilated ;  but  I  had  my  own  affairs  to  look  after 
just  at  that  moment,  and  did  not  see  the  finish  of  that 
particular  fight.  The  Germans  were  successful  for 
a  few  minutes ;  and  hurried  men  so  fast  into  the  gap 
they  had  made  that  we  of  the  second  line  had  to  rush 
forward  in  parties  without  waiting  for  orders;  and 
we  saved  the  day  by  a  hair's-breadth  only. 

I  had  kept  close  to  Lieutenant  Sawmine  from  the 
moment  of  our  leaving  Lovicz.  As  we  closed  with 
the  enemy  one  of  them  forced  the  officer  down,  and 
was  only  prevented  from  bayoneting  him  by  his  cling- 
ing to  the  man's  rifle.  I  sprang  forward  to  save  him, 
and  was  at  once  knocked  down  by  a  big  German.  I 
saw  the  point  of  the  bayonet  poised  over  me  as  he  kept 
me  down  with  his  foot:  my  teeth  closed  tightly  to 


210       AN  ENGLISHMAN  IN  THE  RUSSIAN  RANKS 

meet  the  impending  death :  then  suddenly  I  was  free 
of  that  iron  foot,  and  for  the  fifth  time  during  this 
war  covered  with  blood  and  brains  which  were  not  my 
own.  One  of  the  Russian  soldiers  who  had  followed 
us  very  closely  had  blown  out  the  fellow's  brains  in 
the  very  nick  of  time.  There  really  must  be  a  little 
cherub  who  sits  up  aloft ! 

Sawmine  was  badly  bruised,  but  not  dangerously 
hurt ;  and  together  we  pressed  forward  with  seven  or 
eight  of  our  most  devoted  soldiers.  There  are  al- 
ways some  men  in  a  company  who  have  more  heart  in 
their  work  than  the  others;  and  these  are  generally 
found  close  to  their  officers  at  critical  moments:  in- 
deed, these  are  the  men  who  do  most  of  the  hand-to- 
hand  fighting,  and  to  whom  the  victory  is  really  due. 
One  of  the  heroic  fellows  who  formed  our  little  band 
slew  at  least  twenty  of  the  enemy,  I  know ;  and  very 
possibly  double  that  number.  I  am  sorry  that  I  can- 
not record  the  name  of  this  brave  man,  an  honour  to 
his  country;  nor  that  of  others  not  his  inferiors  in 
bravery  and  self-sacrifice.  Alas !  none  of  them  an- 
swered the  roll-call  when  the  three  days  desperate 
fighting  was  over.  The  bravest  and  the  best  —  this 
is  the  treasure  that  war  costs  a  country. 

An.  English  officer  I  am  not  going  to  name  —  I 
have  the  greatest  respect  for  his  name  and  his  memory 
* —  wrote  that  two  armed  bodies  of  hostile  men  cannot 
remain  on  the  same  ground  longer  than  sixty  seconds 
at  most.  He  made  a  mistake.  Russians  and  Ger- 
mans, on  the  occasion  I  am  recording,  fought  like 
bulldogs  for  two  solid  hours  without  a  break :  and  it 


THE  FIGHTING  NEAR  SKYERMEVICB  211 

was  all  bayonet  work,  scarcely  a  shot  being  fired. 
Then  the  Germans  broke  and  fled,  as  I  had  seen  them 
fly  on  previous  defeats.  There  was  no  equivocation 
about  it :  they  broke  and  ran,  "  bellowing  like  bull- 
calves." 

Every  nation,  I  suppose,  has  its  peculiarities.  I 
do  not  depreciate  the  Germans.  They  can  fight,  and 
fight  bravely  —  but  not  with  the  generous  bravery 
that  most  soldiers  exercise  one  to  another.  They  are 
cruel  in  their  desperation,  vicious  in  the  moment  of 
victory ;  and  they  yell  for  mercy  in  the  hour  of  their 
defeat;  the  only  soldiers  I  have  known,  to  exercise 
this  form  of  —  I  will  not  call  it  cowardice  —  Hudi- 
brastic  caution. 

In  this  battle  the  wonderful  iron  shields  reap- 
peared; and  about  700  of  them  were  taken  by  the 
Russians,  and  used  to  form  a  breastwork ;  which  the 
next  day  was  knocked  to  pieces  by  the  German  artil- 
lery. 

The  enemy  was  followed  half-way  to  their  own 
lines,  and  many  of  them  killed  as  they  ran.  Unfor- 
tunately no  Cossacks  were  at  hand,  as  there  was  here 
a  fine  opening  for  their  peculiar  form  of  ability, 
which  I  have  no  doubt  they  would  have  exerted  to  the 
utmost. 

The  number  of  killed  in  proportion  to  wounded 
was  very  great:  I  should  think  quite  one  in  every 
three,  which  is  more  than  double  the  normal  number, 
even  when  many  casualties  are  caused  by  artillery 
fire;  but  bayonet  work  is  the  most  deadly  form  of 
military  execution. 


212       AN  ENGLISHMAN  IN  THE  RUSSIAN  RANKS 

The  prisoners  taken  are  not  worth  mentioning: 
the  total  of  German  casualties  was  about  8,000  on 
a  front  that  did  not  exceed  two  versts  (2,333  yards 
English  measurement).  They  lay  thickest  in  and 
about  the  trenches.  In  the  bottom  of  the  advanced 
trenches  there  was  a  foot  depth  of  blood  which  had 
drained  from  the  corpses.  The  holes  dug  at  meas- 
ured intervals  for  the  convenience  of  the  troops 
(latrines)  were  full  of  it;  and  the  men  occupying  the 
position  were  compelled  to  stand  in  it  half-leg  deep 
for  several  days  until  an  opportunity  came  to  clean 
the  trenches,  when  the  congealed  horror  was  removed 
in  the  camp  tumbrels,  and  buried  by  the  ton  in  holes 
dug  for  the  purpose.  In  one  part  of  the  trench  I 
helped  to  remove  a  heap  of  sixty-nine  corpses,  lying 
eleven  deep  in  the  middle.  No  one  of  them  had  a 
breath  of  life  left,  though  some  were  not  mortally 
wounded.  They  had  been  smothered  under  the 
weight  of  their  dead  comrades,  or  trampled  to  death. 
Outside  the  trenches  there  lay  heaps  of  dead  bodies, 
six  or  seven  deep,  and  innumerable  scattered  dead  and 
wounded. 

All  the  fighting  that  day  was  over  before  2  p.m., 
and  our  Red  Cross  men,  and  hundreds  of  volunteers, 
went  out  to  succour  the  wounded.  They  were  im- 
mediately fired  on  by  the  German  artillery  and  about 
twenty  of  them  killed  or  injured.  A  flag  of  truce 
was  then  sent  out  to  inform  the  enemy  our  sole  ob- 
ject was  to  alleviate  the  sufferings  of  the  wounded; 
and  that  the  German  injured  were  receiving  the  same 
attention  as  our  own  men.     The  flag  was  received  at 


THE  FIGHTING  NEAR  SKYERMEVICE  213 

a  farm  used  as  an  outpost  bj  the  Germans ;  and  the 
commander,  a  big,  swarthy-faced  man,  declared  he 
did  not  care  a  curse  what  our  intentions  were,  he 
would  fire  on  anybody  he  saw  walking  about  the  field 
of  battle.  I  inquired  the  name  of  this  officer  and 
was  told  it,  and  that  he  was  a  chief  Staif  Officer  to 
Field-Marshal  von  Hindenburg,  who,  it  was  declared, 
had  personally  directed  the  day's  fighting. 

I  believe  a  protest  was  lodged  with  this  military 
churl,  but,  of  course,  nothing  could  be  done  under 
his  threat.  After  nightfall  volunteers  again  went 
out,  and  nearly  a  thousand  wounded  were  brought  in 
to  the  surgeons,  quite  two-thirds  of  them  being  Ger- 
mans. The  total  Russian  losses  were,  I  should  think, 
about  6,000  men. 

While  accompanying  the  flag  of  truce  I  used  my 
eyes.  About  thirty  officers  were  receiving  first-aid, 
or  undergoing  what  seemed  to  be  preliminary  opera- 
tions, in  the  farm-house  and  yard ;  and  I  heard  very 
pitiful  groans  in  some  barns  and  outhouses,  while 
down  the  road  a  string  of  twenty  Red  Cross  waggons 
was  coming  up.  I  concluded  therefore  that  the  en- 
emy had  carried  back  a  number  of  his  wounded  when 
he  retreated.  There  were  pools  of  blood  everywhere 
on  the  road :  for  the  snow  had  been  trampled  down  so 
hard  that  it  could  not  soak  away;  and  it  speedily 
coagulated  into  great  clots.  Many  horrible  memen- 
toes of  the  fight  lay  about.  Seeing  what  I  thought 
was  a  good  sound  boot  lying  on  the  road,  I  picked 
it  up.  There  was  a  foot  in  it.  I  could  fill  pages 
with  such  little  stories.     There  were  some  collections 


214       AN  ENGLISHMAN  IN  THE  RUSSIAN  RANKS 

lying  about  suggestive  of  the  Germans  turning  out 
their  dead  conii-ades'  pockets.  Several  letters,  the 
photograph  of  a  woman  nursing  a  baby,  and  an  elder 
child  leaning  against  her  knee ;  a  lock  of  fair  hair  — 
a  little  girl's,  I  thought  —  and  less  pathetic  objects: 
a  pack  of  cards,  a  broken  pipe,  a  bent  spoon,  and 
some  disgusting  pictures,  suggested  many  men  of 
many  minds  —  some  of  them  none  too  clean. 

The  night  of  the  4th  February  was  very  quiet 
tmtil  about  four  o'clock  a.m.,  when  the  steady  rush 
of  thousands  of  feet  alarmed  all  who  were  awake. 
The  Germans  were  attempting  a  surprise.  A  few 
straggling  shots  from  the  sentries  along  our  front, 
accompanied  by  shouts  of  warning;  a  blaze  of  rifle 
fire;  the  heavy  booming  of  artillery,  and,  in  one 
minute  from  the  alarm  being  given,  the  hell  of  battle 
was  again  in  full  fury.  Our  engineers  threw  search- 
lights over  the  trenches  and  in  front  of  them,  so  that 
we  could  see  what  we  were  doing.  The  effect  was 
very  weird,  and  heightened  the  horror  of  the  scene; 
but  it  helped  the  enemy  as  much  as  it  did  us. 

The  Germans  used  hand-grenades,  or  trench  bombs, 
as  I  understand  they  call  them  on  the  Eastern  front 
of  the  war,  but  we  were  not  provided  with  these 
troublesome  and  destructive  little  weapons.  How- 
ever, there  was  again  much  bayonet  fighting,  a  species 
of  combat  which  the  Germans  did  not  relish,  and  in 
which  they  always  got  the  worst  of  it.  The  Rus- 
sians had  the  advantage  in  the  length  of  their  bay- 
onets —  a  trifle,  but  trifles  are  not  trifles  in  close 
fighting.     Moreover,  our  men  have  a  genius  for  bay- 


THE  FIGHTING  NEAR  SKYERMEVICE  215 

Gnet-fighting,  and  keep  these  weapons  always  ready 
for  use:  that  is,  they  are  never  unfixed,  as  I  have 
previously  explained,  except  to  be  cleaned,  and  not 
always  for  that  purpose.  The  Russian  soldier  shoots 
with  his  bayonet  fixed,  which  is  not  conducive  to  first- 
class  marksmanship ;  but  then  the  German  also  is  not 
a  good  rifle-shot.  Still,  I  wish  I  could  induce  the 
Russians  to  adopt  the  practice  of  unfixing  bayonets 
when  shooting  at  long  ranges. 

This  night  fight  was  short  and  sharp.  It  cost  the 
Germans  another  2,000  men,  and  a  good  licking ;  and 
our  men  about  half  that  number  of  casualties,  and 
the  increased  confidence  engendered  of  another  vic- 
tory. 

The  Germans  had  no  sooner  run  back  to  their  own 
lines  than  their  artillery  sought  to  inflict  on  us  the 
punishment  which  their  infantry  could  not  do. 
They  opened  a  tremendous  cannonade;  it  being  cal- 
culated that  500  guns  were  pla\'ing  on  our  trenches 
for  nearly  six  hours.  Shells  were  exploding  twenty 
or  thirty  at  a  time,  and  sometimes  quite  in  showers. 
The  effect  was  terrific.  The  air  was  full  of  smoke, 
and  clouds  of  dirt  and  mud  from  the  trenches  blown 
to  pieces;  but  the  loss  of  life  was  not  great.  The 
section  of  trench  which  the  enemy  had  made  their 
objective  did  not,  as  I  have  said,  exceed  a  breadth  of 
two  versts;  and  on  this  narrow  front  they  concen- 
trated all  their  efforts  and  all  their  fire,  though  some 
of  the  last-named  came  from  flanking  batteries  situ- 
ated a  long  way  off.  Each  gun  fired,  on  an  average, 
a  shot  a  minute:  consequently  a  shell  fell  on  every 


216       AN  ENGLISHMAN  IN  THE  RUSSIAN  RANKS 

seven  linear  yards  of  our  position  sixty  times  an  hour. 
Of  course  some  fell  short,  others  went  over  the 
trenches,  and  some  burst  high  in  the  air;  but  still 
the  fact  remains  that  every  minute  a  shell  came  in  a 
section  of  our  lines  which  was  less  than  seven  yards 
wide.  During  the  six  hours  that  the  bombardment 
lasted  the  scene  was  like  that  of  an  inferno :  and  the 
noise  so  great  that  the  men  were  glad  to  stop  up  their 
ears  with  any  substance  they  could  find.  Many 
pulled  grass  from  beneath  the  snow  and  used  it  for 
this  purpose.  The  wire  entanglement  was  pretty 
well  blown  to  pieces,  curled  up  and  rolled  into  heaps 
which  were  knocked  right  over  the  trenches,  and  some- 
times into  them,  where  it  entangled  our  own  men, 
and  gave  them  much  trouble.  The  number  of  men 
killed  by  this  apparently  terrible  bombardment  was 
fifty,  and  twice  that  number  wounded. 

An  hour  before  dawn  the  Germans  attempted  an 
assault,  rushing  towards  us  in  great  strength,  and  in 
their  usual  close  formation;  but  they  were  stopped 
by  our  artillery  fire,  and  turned  before  they  reached 
the  edge  of  the.  first  trench,  and  fled  in  a  panic.  I 
saw  our  guns  cutting  great  lanes  in  the  wavering 
masses ;  but  they  were  soon  out  of  sight,  and  the  dim- 
ness of  the  light  probably  saved  them  from  more  con- 
siderable losses. 

We  had  reasons  for  thinking  that  the  commanders 
of  this  host  were  unable  to  get  their  men  to  make  a 
second  assault,  and  were  obliged  to  send  to  another 
part  of  their  line  for  fresh  troops.  There  was  some 
commotion  in  their  ranks;  and  afterwards  we  could 


THE  FIGHTING  NEAR  SKYERMEVICE  217 

hear  their  bands  playing  merry  tunes,  probably  to 
keep  up  the  spirits  of  the  men. 

It  was  after  noon  when  they  made  their  second 
advance;  and  our  troops  finding  they  could  not  stop 
them  with  a  withering  fire,  sprang  from  their 
trenches,  and  met  them  with  the  bayonet.  The  fight 
was  a  short  one.  At  least  ten  thousand  of  the  Ger- 
mans were  destroyed,  and  a  thousand  prisoners  were 
taken.  We  followed  them  right  up  to  their  lines; 
and  for  a  short  time  some  portions  of  their  positions 
were  in  our  hands :  but  they  brought  such  a  devastat- 
ing artillery  fire  to  bear  on  us  that  our  gains  could 
not  be  maintained,  and  we  had  to  retire ;  but  we  did 
so  slowly  and  stubbornly  and  with  parade-like  pre- 
cision, the  men  firing  in  alternate  skirmishing  lines, 
and  completely  stopping  an  attempted  pursuit.  The 
Germans  made  two  more  assaults  in  the  course  of  the 
day,  but  could  not  drive  either  of  them  home;  nor 
had  they  the  pluck  to  stand  up  to  another  bayonet 
fight.  Their  losses  were  appalling,  and  greatly  in 
excess  of  those  of  the  two  previous  days :  and  certainly 
exceeded  20,000  men,  besides  nearly  3,000  un- 
wounded  prisoners.  It  was  reported  at  the  time  that 
no  fewer  than  thirteen  of  their  General  Officers  were 
killed  or  badly  injured. 

The  total  losses  of  the  Russians  on  this  day  alone 
was  7,000  men :  8,000  of  the  enemy's  wounded,  and 
all  our  own,  were  brought  in  after  nightfall,  and 
many  more  were  removed  by  the  Germans ;  for  this 
day  they  admitted,  and  respected,  a  flag  of  truce. 
But  the  dead  on  both  sides,  except  in  the  case  of  offi- 


218       AN  ENGLISHMAN  IN  THE  RUSSIAN  RANKS 

cers,  and  a  few  others,  were  left  to  rot  where  they 
fell.  Some  regiments  buried  their  own  dead,  but 
only  under  the  snow;  for  the  ground  was  frozen  so 
hard,  that  it  was  most  difficult  to  dig  graves.  A 
number  of  bodies  were  burnt  in  pinewood  fires ;  but 
an  officer  of  high  rank  was  so  disgusted  with  the 
ghastly  sight,  that  he  gave  orders  that  no  more  were 
to  be  disposed  of  in  this  way ;  yet  it  would  have  been 
better  than  leaving  them  to  be  mutilated  and  partly 
devoured  by  the  beasts  of  the  field  and  the  fowls  of 
the  air.  Amongst  these  dreadful  creatures  were 
large  numbers  of  those  savage  and  semi-wild  dogs 
which  infest  all  the  Polish  villages,  and  flocks  of 
crows  and  ravens;  also  wolves  and  wild  swine.  All 
these  animals  must  have  scented  the  carrion  from  a 
great  distance :  and  nobody  could  tell  precisely  where 
they  came  from.  The  firing  frightened  them  away 
for  a  time;  but  an  hour's  quietude  would  always  be 
followed  by  their  reappearance.  In  the  early  grey 
dawn,  and  in  the  twilight  of  evening,  I  have  seen  the 
birds  of  prey  pulling  out  the  eyes  of  the  slain  men, 
or  contending  for  the  entrails  which  the  dogs  had 
torn  from  the  rotting  bodies.  It  is  hardly  credible 
that  such  horrid  scenes  should  be  witnessed  on  a  mod- 
ern battlefield;  but  my  own  eyes  were  witnesses  to 
it ;  and  I  shot  several  wolves  and  many  dogs  that  were 
engaged  in  such  dreadful  repasts.  All  these  animals 
became  so  used  to  the  noises  of  battle,  even  to  the 
thunderous  discharges  of  artillery,  that  they  never  re- 
tired very  far,  though  how  they  contrived  to  hide 
themselves  is  a  puzzle.     I  never  saw  more  than  a  few 


THE  FIGHTING  NEAR  SKYERMEVICE  21» 

odd  ones  in  the  woods  and  forests  we  passed  through ; 
but  the  dogs  harboured  in  the  ruined  villages  where 
once  they  had  been  owned  by  masters  of  some  sort. 

I  have  painted  these  scenes  very  faintly,  for  fear 
of  exciting  too  much  horror  and  disgust;  but  how 
people  professing  to  believe  in  a  righteous  and  sin- 
punishing  God  can  tolerate  the  wickedness  of  war 
is  astounding  to  a  thinking  man.  A  God-fearing  (  ! ) 
ruler  goes  on  his  knees,  prays  to  God  for  the  blessings 
of  peace,  and  the  honest  prosperity  of  his  people; 
then  goes  forth  and  issues  an  edict  which  causes  the 
marring  of  God's  image  in  hundreds  of  thousands  I 
Perhaps  he  doesn't  really  believe  that  man  is  made 
in  the  image  of  God.  I  hope  he  does  not.  Better 
be  an  infidel  than  a  wholesale  murderer  of  the  simili- 
tude of  the  Lord.  I  dwell  not  on  the  misery  of 
widows  and  orphans  and  aged  parents. 

Walking  over  the  field  one  evening  I  came  upon 
a  raven  perched  upon  the  face  of  what  had  once  been, 
a  man.  It  had  picked  his  eyes  from  their  sockets, 
and  torn  away  his  lips,  and  portions  of  the  flesh  of 
his  face,  and  turned  leisurely  as  I  approached,  but 
did  not  fly  away  until  I  was  quite  close  to  it.  Then 
it  flapped  off  slowly,  with  a  suUen  croak. 


CHAPTEK  XVIII 

CHIEFLY    GOSSIP 

The  5th  February,  1915,  closed  with  the  heavy 
booming  of  siege  artillery  used  as  field-pieces.  What 
the  artillery  of  the  future  will  be  we  may  foresee  from 
the  experiences  of  the  present  war.  It  will  be  limited 
in  the  size  of  the  guns  only  by  the  endurance  of  the 
pieces,  and  the  power  of  man  to  move  them.  The 
howitzers  used  to  throw  the  "  Jack  Johnsons  "  are 
said  to  be  pieces  of  23^-inch  calibre :  if  they  are  so 
it  is  not  likely  that  they  can  throw  more  than  fifty 
or  sixty  shells  before  it  is  necessary  to  reline  them. 
Huge  guns  are  very  speedily  worn  out,  and  are  not, 
therefore,  of  much  value  except  for  particular  pur- 
poses —  chiefly  the  smashing  of  forts  in  siege  opera- 
tions. But  6-inch,  and  even  8-inch,  guns  have  been 
,  freely  used  in  this  campaign;  and  before  such  ord- 
nance, driven  by  mechanical  means,  no  field-guns  can 
stand,  no  field-batteries  exist.  It  is  probable,  there- 
fore, that  this  is  the  last  great  war  in  which  horsed 
batteries  will  take  a  part.  It  will  be  one  of  the  "  les- 
sons of  the  war  "  that  only  heavy  guns  are  of  much 
use  on  the  field  of  battle. 

I  am  digressing  a  little.  At  first  we  thought  the 
night  cannonade  of  the  5th  was  a  prelude  to  another 
attack;  but  about  ten  o'clock  at  night  it  ceased;  and 

save  for  the  groans  and  cries  of  the  wounded  the  night 

220 


CHIEFLY  GOSSIP  221 

•was  almost  quiet.  Our  Ked  Cross  men  were  out  all 
night;  and  the  German  men  until  a  couple  of  hours 
before  daybreak.  We  removed  all  our  wounded  that 
we  could  find :  the  enemy  left  their  worst  cases  to  die 
on  the  field.  The  Eussians  saved  all  they  could; 
but  strict  orders  were  given  to  our  men  not  to  ap- 
proach near  the  German  lines. 

I  should  note,  perhaps,  that  while  in  the  West  the 
Allies'  and  the  German  trenches  are  said  to  often  be 
within  a  few  yards  of  each  other,  this  was  seldom 
the  case  in  the  East.  There  was  generally  a  consid- 
erable space  between  the  two  lines :  here  near  Skyer- 
mevice  it  amounted  to  3,000  yards ;  but  the  Germans 
had  advanced  trenches  in  which  they  massed  their 
men  when  about  to  make  an  assault.  Evidently 
trench  warfare  is  not  so  highly  developed  or  so  much 
resorted  to  in  the  East  as  it  appears  to  be  in  the  West. 
The  vast  numbers  of  the  Russians,  and  the  circimi- 
stance  that  the  scene  of  actual  fighting  is  constantly 
shifting  over  a  very  long  front,  are  the  probable 
causes  of  this.  Another  cause  was  the  extreme  hard- 
ness of  the  earth,  which  made  it  impossible  to  dig 
fresh  trenches  during  the  winter-time. 

It  has  been  said  that  there  is  no  such  word  as 
"  impossible "  in  the  military  vocabulary ;  but  the 
forces  of  Nature  are  frequently  not  to  be  overcome, 
even  by  military  pluck  and  perseverance.  E'ot  even 
a  soldier  can  dig  holes  in  solid  steel ;  and  the  ground 
in  Poland  was  hardly  less  solid  and  difficult  to  work : 
hence  trenches  were  not  made  after  the  early  days  of 
December,  nor  the  dead  buried  as  a  rule. 


222       AN  ENGLISHMAN  IN  THE  RUSSIAN  RANKS 

Field-works  were  made  in  various  ways.  Abattis, 
covered  with  barbed  wire,  were  very  common ;  and 
batteries  formed  of  sand-bags ;  but  neither  were  very 
successful.  High  explosive  shells  dashed  the  trees 
of  the  abattis  to  atoms,  and  drove  the  fragments  back 
on  the  defenders,  causing  many  casualties ;  and  some- 
thing similar  occurred  in  the  case  of  the  sand-bags, 
which  were  torn  to  pieces,  and  dashed  right  and  left, 
blinding  many  men.  So  during  the  winter,  the  rule 
was  to  stick  to  the  old  trenches ;  or  occupy  those  natu- 
rally formed  by  hollows  of  the  ground,  or  the  deep 
banks  of  water-courses,  the  streams  of  which  were 
usually  firmly  frozen.  As  wet  could  not  soak  away 
through  the  frozen  ground  the  condition  at  the  bot- 
toms of  those  trenches  which  had  been  occupied  for 
any  length  of  time  was  filthy  in  the  extreme.  Dirty 
water,  blood  and  refuse,  was  being  continually  added 
to  the  loathsomeness  already  existing,  and  this,  and 
the  constant  trampling  of  the  men,  prevented  the 
freezing  of  the  mass ;  and  I  consider  it  simply  won- 
derful that  there  was  no  serious  outbreak  of  sickness 
■]  amongst  us.  But  Russian  doctors  and  Russian  offi- 
cers are  becoming  fully  conscious  of  the  value  of 
sanitation  amongst  troops ;  and  the  soldiers  were  kept 
as  clean  and  well  looked  after  as  circumstances  would 
permit.  Moreover,  the  huge  numbers  of  men  ad- 
mitted of  frequent  changes  of  those  serving  in  the 
trenches ;  and  they  were  never  in  these  miserable  bur- 
rows for  any  great  length  of  time. 

As  the  fighting  seemed  to  be  over  for  a  time,  I 
went  to  the  rear  with  the  intention  of  obtaining  some 


CHIEFLY  GOSSIP  223 

rest.  The  tiring  nature  of  the  work  in  which  we 
had  been  engaged  may  be  inferred  from  the  circum- 
stance that  in  rear  of  the  trenches  I  found  an  entire 
regiment  bivouacked,  lying  on  the  snow  fast  asleep  to 
a  man,  with  their  knapsacks  for  pillows.  As  they 
were  huddled  close  together  they  probably  enjoyed  an 
amount  of  mutual  warmth,  though  the  day  was  a  bit- 
terly cold  one. 

I  sought  more  comfortable  quarters,  and  found 
them  in  an  old  broken-down  waggon  and  a  handful 
of  straw.  Here  I  slept  as  only  the  utterly  weary  can 
sleep,  and  did  not  awake  until  twenty-one  hours  had 
passed  away.  When  I  did  open  my  eyes  I  found 
myself  wedged  in  between  three  soldiers  who  had 
not  seen  letting  me  enjoy  such  splendid  accommoda- 
tion all  to  myself. 

I  got  up,  shook  myself  together,  and  went  in  search 
of  the  battalion  and  breakfast.  Sawmine,  not  know- 
ing what  had  become  of  me,  had  thought  I  must  be 
killed.  He  was  rather  downhearted :  for  the  loss  of 
the  best  men  and  officers  had  been  enormous ;  the  sur- 
vivors, however,  were  generally  cheering  themselves 
with  the  hope  that  the  Czar  would  shortly  pay  us  a 
visit,  and  distribute  rewards  to  those  who  thought 
they  had  earned  them.  He  was  known  to  be  jour- 
neying along  the  front;  and  it  was  confidently  ex- 
pected that  he  would  appear  amongst  us  within  the 
space  of  a  few  days. 

The  scenes  behind  the  trenches  were  simply  awful. 
Transport  was  much  congested,  and  the  majority 
of  the  wounded  were  still  unremoved  to  hospital. 


224       AN  ENGLISHMAN  IN  THE  RUSSIAN  RANKS 

The  field-tents  were  crowded  to  excess,  the  surgeons 
hardly  able  to  move  about,  and  much  impeded  in 
their  operations.  Outside  one  tent  a  great  heap  of 
arms  and  legs  which  had  been  amputated  lay  on  the 
ground;  and  I  saw  several  men  carried  away  who 
had  died  under  the  operator's  knife.  Many  of  the 
injured  men  lay  on  straw  in  the  open  air;  others 
were  stretched  on  the  bare  ground.  These  were  con- 
sidered to  be  the  milder  cases,  the  most  badly  injured 
being  allotted  the  first  attention  and  the  best  accom- 
modation. But  many  of  these  mild  cases  were  bad 
enough  to  shock  anybody  with  a  tender  heart ;  and  I 
particularly  noted  the  great  number  of  men  who  were 
suffering  from  injuries  to  the  head  and  eyes.  Ser- 
eral  had  both  eyes  shot  out,  and  scores  had  lost  one. 
These  had  received  temporary  dressing;  but  were 
mostly  in  great  pain.  Of  course  I  did  what  I  could 
for  them;  but  that  was  not  much,  as  I  was  without 
materials  and  instruments.  Fortunately,  in  one  of 
the  tents  there  was  a  doctor  whom  I  knew  by  sight. 
I  made  motions  to  indicate  what  I  required,  and  he 
^  did  not  raise  any  objection  to  my  taking  a  quantity  of 
bandages  and  other  things.  With  the  aid  of  these  I 
succeeded  in  making  some  of  the  waiting  men  more 
comfortable,  being  greatly  assisted  by  two  country- 
women who  were  also  helping  these  unfortunate  men. 
It  evidently  puzzled  these  people  that  a  foreigner, 
who  could  not  speak  their  language,  should  be 
amongst  them;  but  they  soon  decided  that  I  was  an 
Englishman;  I  had  acquired  Eussian  enough  to  un- 
derstand that ;  and  they  were  all  very  grateful,  those 


CHIEFLY  GOSSIP  225 

that  did  not  require  attention  not  the  least  so:  for 
they  all  realized  that  what  was  done  was  done  for 
their  beloved  Eussia  —  a  holy  land  in  the  opinion 
of  every  true  Muscovite. 

Some  days  elapsed  before  all  the  wounded  could 
be  removed,  and  sent  back  to  base  hospitals.  All, 
[Russians  and  Germans,  received  precisely  similar 
treatment,  and  were  seen  to  as  they  came  to  hand, 
without  any  preference,  national  or  otherwise. 

One  of  the  surprising  events  of  this  time  was  that 
several  Eussian  aeroplanes  appeared  over  our  lines, 
and  troubled  the  minds  (though,  I  am  afraid,  not  the 
bodies)  of  the  enemy  a  good  deal.  They  were  useful 
for  two  reasons,  if  for  no  other  —  they  distracted  the 
Germans,  and  caused  them  a  great  waste  of  ammuni- 
tion. I  am  sure  tens  of  thousands  of  rifle-cartridges 
were  fired  at  them,  and  hundreds  of  rounds  of  big- 
gun  shells.  They  all  missed  the  pigeon,  and  did  not 
even  hit  the  crow!  It  is  fair  to  add  that  I  do  not 
think  that  our  dropped  bombs  did  much  hurt.  It  is 
true  we  heard  a  good  deal  about  wrecked  troop-trains, 
blown-up  tumbrels,  and  half -annihilated  battalions; 
but  all  these  incidents  occurred  at  such  great  distances 
from  our  trenches  that  I  was  unable  to  verify  them. 

Tor  some  days  little  occurred  near  our  position, 
except  a  daily  bombardment  at  long  range,  mostly  by 
the  heavier  guns  on  both  sides.  What  the  object  was 
I  cannot  tell :  it  seemed  to  me  to  be  a  mere  waste  of 
big  shells.  If  any  advantage  was  derived  from  it,  it 
was  certainly  on  the  side  of  Eussia,  whose  artillery- 
men made  much  the  best  practice.     The  shooting  was 


226       AN  ENGLISHMAN  IN  THE  RUSSIAN  RANKS 

slow  and  the  aim  deliberate;  but  we  lost  only  two 
men:  while  a  heavy  explosion  in  the  German  lines 
seemed  to  show  that  we  had  blown  up  one  of  their 
magazines.  I  watched  their  position  long  and  care- 
fully through  a  good  glass,  but  saw  nothing  except 
puffs  of  smoke  and  an  occasional  flash  of  fire. 

I  was  out  several  nights  with  reconnoitring  par- 
ties; but  the  enemy  was  well  on  the  alert,  and  we 
gained  no  information;  while  a  well-directed  volley 
from  some  hidden  jagers  knocked  half  a  dozen  of  our 
men  off  the  roster.  On  the  night  of  the  8th  we  cap- 
tured a  miserable  old  Polish  hag,  busily  engaged  in 
robbing  the  dead  who  lay  unburied.  She  had  an 
apron  full  of  watches,  rings  and  money,  and  was,  I 
believe,  shot  in  the  morning.  I  cannot  say  she  did 
not  deserve  her  fate ;  but  I  thought  at  the  time  that 
not  much  good  could  come  of  terminating  the  exist- 
ence of  such  a  wretched  old  creature.  She  could  say, 
in  her  defence,  that  the  Germans  had  robbed  her  and 
destroyed  her  home,  and  perhaps  murdered  her  rela- 
tives. 

The  10th  was  an  exciting  day  for  us.  We  received 
certain  information  that  a  large  force  of  the  enemy 
•was  nearly  surrounded  by  our  troops;  and  we  were 
ordered  to  get  ready  to  march  immediately  to  an  un- 
known destination:  but  everybody  was  satisfied  that 
it  was  intended  that  we  should  take  a  part  in  the 
encircling  operation;  and  it  seemed  like  it:  for  we 
marched  off  at  two  o'clock  in  the  afternoon,  a  very 
unusual  hour  in  which  to  commence  such  a  movement. 

The  force  thus  detailed  was  about  40,000  infantry 


CHIEFLY  GOSSIP  227 

and  150  guns;  and  there  was  probably  cavalry  and 
more  artillery  on  our  right  flank :  but  of  this  I  know 
nothing  with  certainty. 

The  enemy  on  our  front  was  so  quiet  that  in  all 
probability  he  had  detached  a  strong  force  in  aid  of 
the  threatened  troops,  and  possibly  had  vacated  his 
position. 

In  my  opinion,  however,  there  were  indications 
that  the  Eussian  Commander  was  being  out-gener- 
alled,  or  was  rushing  his  troops  into  a  precarious 
position. 


CHAPTER  XIX 

THE,   FIGHTING    BEFOEE    PLOCK 

On  the  second  day  of  the  march  I  ascertained  that 
we  were  falling  back  on  Warsaw ;  and  Sawmine,  who 
had  been  made  a  Captain,  agreed  with  me  that  some- 
thing must  be  wrong  in  the  North.  There  were  no 
Germans  near  us.  Trenches  and  earthworks  in  the 
neighbourhood  were  strongly  held ;  but  I  noticed  that 
none  of  the  guns  of  position  appeared  to  exceed  6-inch 
calibre,  which  was  not  heavy  enough  to  resist  suc- 
cessfully the  huge  siege-guns  which  the  Germans  were 
sure  to  bring  up  if  they  invaded  this  district. 

No  news  reached  us,  and  we  were  kept  marching 
almost  incessantly.  We  had  no  tents,  and  seldom 
slept  under  cover,  though  the  cold  seemed  to  freeze 
one's  marrow.  Sometimes  the  officers,  and  a  few  fa- 
voured men,  slept  in  beds  in  houses  on  the  route ;  and 
sometimes  hay  and  straw  was  thrown  down  by  the 
side  of  the  road,  and  we  rested  on  this  in  the  best  way 
we  could.  Most  of  the  troops  we  passed  had  tents, 
and  some  were  hutted  in  hovels  made  of  pine-boughs, 
thatched  with  the  leaves  or  twigs  of  those  trees. 

We  did  not  enter  Warsaw.     About  four  versts 

outside  the  town  we  were  halted  in  two  long  ranks  on 

either  side  of  a  road,  and  served  out  with  new  boots, 

which  we  were  sadly  in  need  of.     My  own  feet,  like 

228 


THE  FIGHTING  BEFORE  PLOCK  229 

those  of  many  of  the  men,  were  nearly  bare,  and  cut, 
frost-bitten  and  bleeding.  I  had  not  possessed  socks 
or  stockings  for  many  weeks;  and  these  were  not  in 
general  use  in  the  Eussian  Army.  At  this  halt  I  ob- 
tained a  quantity  of  tallow,  which  is  an  excellent 
thing  with  which  to  anoint  the  feet,  chilblains,  cuts, 
or  wounds,  and  bruises  of  any  kind. 

Biscuits  and  raw  fish  were  here  also  served  out. 
The  fish  was  not  cooked  in  the  least,  but  seemed  to 
have  been  preserved  in  wet  salt.  So  far  from  being 
a  revolting  food,  it  was  quite  tasty,  and  I  became 
very  fond  of  it.  We  had  to  eat  this  meal  as  we 
marched  along;  and  that  without  any  other  drink 
than  water ;  and  we  were  kept  on  the  tramp  until  far 
into  the  night.  It  was  too  dark  to  read  a  watch,  and 
we  were  strictly  forbidden  to  strike  matches  or  to 
smoke;  but  I  suppose  it  was  two  or  three  o'clock  in 
the  morning  when  we  received  permission  to  lie  down 
in  the  streets  of  a  village.  The  people  gladly  re- 
ceived us  into  their  houses ;  but  we  were  ordered  not 
to  undress,  and  to  be  ready  to  fall  in  at  a  moment's 
notice.  I  lay  down  on  the  outside  of  a  bed  which  a 
woman  pointed  out  to  me,  and  immediately  went  to 
sleep;  but  I  suppose  she  soon  aroused  me,  and  pre- 
sented a  bowl  containing  about  three  pints  of  strong 
tea  without  milk  and  sugar.  I  was  almost  too  sleepy 
to  drink  it,  badly  as  I  wanted  a  refresher;  and  the 
large  parcel  of  food  she  gave  me  I  put  into  my  haver- 
sack: then  dropped  asleep  again. 

It  was  scarcely  daylight  when  I  was  again  aroused. 
A  military  band  was  playing  noisily  in  the  street, 


230       AN  ENGLISHMAN  IN  THE  RUSSIAN  RANKS 

and  the  battalion  was  falling  in  outside  tlie  door. 
The  band  did  not  belong  to  our  regiment;  but  as  it 
inarched  not  far  behind,  we  had  the  benefit  of  its 
music,  such  as  it  was,  consisting  principally  of  brass 
instruments  and  drums,  with  plenty  of  tinkling 
cymbals. 

Soon  after  midday  we  crossed  the  Vistula  by  the 
bridge  at  Novogeorgevsk,  and  went  along  a  road  run- 
ning, for  a  long  distance,  almost  parallel  with  the 
right  bank  of  that  river.  The  people  in  the  town, 
and  in  the  villages  we  passed  through,  were  in  a  state 
of  extreme  excitement,  and  Sawmine  said  they  were 
asserting  that  severe  fighting  had  occurred  at  Plock, 
and  the  Kussians  had  got  the  worst  of  it,  and  were 
retreating. 

Plock  is  a  large  town  on  the  right  bank  of  the  Vis- 
tula, seventy-three  versts  from  !N"ovogeorgevsk. 
There  is  no  railway  running  between  the  two  towns, 
nor  between  Plock  and  the  Prussian  frontier,  distant 
another  100  versts.  JSTothing  can  show  the  poverty 
of  Russia  more  than  this  want  of  railways:  for  the 
nearest  station  to  Plock  is  Vroclavick  on  the  left 
bank  of  the  Vistula,  and  distant  fully  fifty  versts 
(two  days'  long  marches)  ;  yet  Plock  is  in  the  centre 
of  an  important  district  on  the  main  road  from  War- 
saw to  the  Prussian  fortress  of  Thorn,  a  place  of  such 
strength  that  the  Russians  have  not  dared  to  ap- 
proach it. 

On  the  15th  we  met  many  thousands  of  Russians 
in  retreat.  They  were  in  good  order,  and  under  the 
perfect  control  of  their  officers;  but  still  they  were 


THE  FIGHTING  BEFORE  PLOCK  231 

defeated  troops,  and  showed  by  their  sullen  demean- 
our that  they  knew  it.  We  were  drawn  up  in  quarter- 
column  to  let  them  pass,  which  they  took  three  hours 
to  do.  Towards  the  close  of  the  day  we  came  up 
with  7000  Cossacks  who  were  covering  their  retreat. 

Up  to  now  we  had  heard  no  sounds  of  battle;  but 
on  the  16th,  at  dawn,  the  noise  of  heavy  firing  was 
audible  a  long  way  ahead.  By  order  of  a  Staff  Offi- 
cer, we  hurried  along  in  the  direction  of  this  sound ; 
but  by  nightfall  it  was  not  perceptibly  nearer,  though 
we  met  many  small  detachments  of  cavalry  and  in- 
fantry, who  had  evidently  passed  through  a  rough  ex- 
perience. Many  were  wounded  and  bandaged ;  many 
more  had  undressed  hurts  which  were  still  bleeding. 
Several  were  being  led,  or  carried,  on  the  backs  of 
comrades ;  and  soon  we  began  to  pass  long  strings  of 
waggons  full  of  injured,  which  left  long  trails  of 
blood  on  the  road. 

Then  we  came  to  a  village  where  artillery  were 
halted,  and  were  ordered  to  assist  in  putting  the 
houses  into  a  state  of  defence.  The  poor  people  of 
the  place  had  already  fled,  probably  long  previously. 
I  never  heard  the  name  of  this  village ;  none  of  our 
people  knew  it:  and  there  was  a  sad  lack  of  maps. 
Tew,  except  officers  of  rank  and  those  on  the  Staff, 
possessed  them ;  and  the  few  I  saw  in  the  possession 
of  subaltern  officers  were  very  defective,  and  did  not 
give  the  names  of  more  than  a  third  of  the  places  we 
found  on  the  ground.  A  good  map  which  I  obtained 
with  much  trouble  at  Skyermevice  was  taken  from 
me;  and,  acting  on  the  advice  of  a  friend,  I  did  not 


232      AN  ENGLISHMAN  IN  THE  RUSSIAN  RANKS 

attempt  to  obtain  another.  The  possession  of  such 
papers  was  liable  to  be  misinterpreted ;  and  the  spy- 
fever  was  a  complaint  not  altogether  unknown  in  the 
Eussian  Army. 

During  the  night  we  learned  that  it  was  the  Eus- 
«ian  Tenth  Army  which  had  been  very  roughly  han- 
dled by  the  foe.  There  was  said  to  have  been  more 
than  a  week's  incessant  fighting;  and  the  exhausted 
appearance  of  the  retreating  troops  bore  out  the 
truth  of  the  statement.  They  had  with  them  a  great 
many  wounded;  and  their  general  aspect  showed 
that  their  losses  must  have  been  terrible.  Their  de- 
pleted ranks  proved  that.  Probably  a  third  of  the 
entire  army  had  perished,  or  been  captured.  The 
defeat  was  the  more  galling,  as  it  was  asserted  that 
the  Germans  who  had  inflicted  it  were  boys,  and  a 
scratch  lot  of  invalids  who  were  supposed  to  have 
been  finally  discharged  from  service  in  the  Prussian 
Army:  and  this  rabble  lot  was  commanded  by  the 
Kaiser  himself.  I  could  hardly  believe  this  last  as- 
sertion, as  I  did  not  believe  William  had  got  a  vic- 
tory in  him. 

Some  of  the  retreating  troops,  who  had  been  in 
reserve,  and  were  not  much  shaken,  stopped  to  share 
in  the  defence  of  the  position  we  had  taken  up.  We 
got  well  under  cover  in  spite  of  the  hard  frost;  but 
there  was  not  much  barbed  wire  available  for  the 
outer  defences. 

'No  Germans  appeared  near  us  until  the  18th,  when 
two  regiments  of  infantry  and  two  of  cavalry  came 
and  had  a  look  at  us,  though  they  took  care  not  to 


THE  FIGHTING  BEFORE  PLOCK  233 

afford  much  of  a  mark  for  our  guns.  It  was  the  ad- 
vanced guard  of  a  much  larger  force,  though  I  am 
unable  to  state  the  numbers.  At  least  sixty  guns 
opened  on  our  village  alone ;  and  other  artillery  could 
be  heard  in  every  direction  for  many  miles  around. 

Nor  do  I  know  our  own  numbers.  I  heard  that 
the  entire  Eighth  Army  was  in  line,  with  the  left 
flank  resting  on  the  Vistula.  The  village  we  were 
defending  was  about  thirteen  versts  from  the  river; 
and  I  can  say  that  the  ground  between  us  and  the 
right  bank  of  the  Vistula  was  very  strongly  held,  its 
weak  point  being  that  effective  trenches  could  not 
be  made  in  the  time  at  our  disposal ;  but  this  was  a 
circumstance  that  hurt  the  Germans  as  much  as  it 
did  us,  and  perhaps  more,  as  we  shall  see  presently. 
How  far  the  line  of  battle  extended  to  the  right  I  do 
not  know.  It  stretched  as  far  as  a  hamlet  called 
Vilstick,  and  from  thence  to  Biatzun,  seventy  versts 
from  the  river  bank.  There  must,  therefore,  have 
been  at  least  300,000  men  on  this  alignment;  and 
more  likely  there  were  nearly  double  that  number. 
Circumstances  occurred  which  rendered  it  desirable 
that  I  should  not  be  too  precise  in  inquiring  about 
numbers,  distances  and  names  of  places.  These  were 
often  only  known  to  officers  of  rank  and  those  high 
in  command.  Regimental  officers  were  as  ignorant 
as  I  was,  and,  like  me,  had  to  rely  on  guessing,  sur- 
mising and  the  use  of  their  own  sharp  eyes.  More 
than  once  my  "  inquiring  mind  "  would  have  placed 
me  in  an  awkward  fix  had  not  my  hatred  of  Germany 
and  things  German  been  beyond  a  doubt. 


234      AN  ENGLISHMAN  IN  THE  RUSSIAN  RANKS 

As  to  the  Germans,  I  learned  from  prisoners,  cor- 
roborated bj  other  evidence,  that  multitudes  of  them 
came  over  the  frontiers  through  Inowraklow,  Golloob, 
Lauten,  and  particularly  from  Thorn.  Their 
strength  was  put  at  500,000,  and  I  am  convinced  that 
it  was  not  under  that  number.  All  these  were  new 
troops.  It  contained  a  corps  of  what  were  called 
"  Guards  " ;  but  the  old  guards  were  destroyed  long 
before  this  time;  and  though  their  ranks  had  been 
recruited  they  were  not  in  this  part  of  the  war  area.^ 
The  new  Guards  were  mostly  students  from  univer- 
sities and  schools,  vdth  a  sprinkling  of  veterans  who 
had  been  from  ten  to  thirty  years  out  of  the  service, 
even  as  Landwehr.  There  were  regiments  of  old 
men,  regiments  of  boys  under  twenty  years;  and  of 
these  the  lads  were  viperish  little  wretches,  as  thirsty 
for  blood  as  any  of  the  older  Huns. 

The  advanced  guard  of  Germans  having  fallen 
back,  we  (in  the  village,  I  mean)  were  subjected  to  a 
cannonade,  the  object  of  which  seemed  to  be  to  as- 
certain the  range,  or  induce  us  to  show  our  strength 
in  artillery  by  making  a  reply.  A  couple  of  hundred 
shells  were  thrown  at  us,  and  knocked  down  a  few  i 
houses,  and  set  fire  to  two. 

Our  Cossacks  seem  to  have  discovered  that  these 
guns  were  not  well  supported ;  for  they  charged  them, 
and  captured  four,  besides  spearing,  or  sabring,  a  lot 
of  the  gunners.  That  gave  us  peace  for  the  rest  of 
the  night. 

1  They  were  probably  the  "  Guard  Reserve  Corps."  They 
wore  the  distinctive  uniform  of  "  Guards "  when  in  parade 
dress. 


THE  FIGHTING  BEFORE  PLOCK  235 

There  was  a  scarcity  of  water  in  the  village,  and 
we  were  compelled  to  let  the  two  houses  burn  out. 
It  was  with  difficulty  we  prevented  the  fire  from 
spreading,  and  with  still  greater  difficulty  rescued  a 
bed-ridden  cripple  from  one  of  the  blazing  houses. 
He  had  been  left  behind  when  the  inhabitants  fled, 
and  declared  that  there  were  three  or  four  children 
hiding  in  the  house.  If  so  they  were  burnt  to  death, 
poor  little  creatures:  not  the  only  instance  of  the 
kind  that  came  under  my  notice  during  this  horrid 
war. 

Just  before  dawn,  their  favourite  hour  for  deliver- 
ing an  assault,  the  enemy  rushed  up  to  the  village 
in  great  numbers;  and,  of  course,  in  closely  formed 
masses.  It  was  a  surprise  to  our  troops:  for  the 
Germans  were  upon  our  outposts  before  they  were 
discovered.  The  pickets  fired  on  them;  and  thos© 
that  escaped  ran  in  behind  the  barricades  we  had 
formed.  Hundreds  of  men  were  sleeping  in  the 
loop-holed  houses;  and  these  saved  the  day:  for  the 
enemy  could  not  get  at  them,  and  they  were  shot 
dovtoi  in  great  numbers  by  rifle  and  machine-gun 
fire,  and  from  a  building  in  the  centre  of  the  hamlet 
(a  public  hall  of  some  kind)  which  commanded  the 
cross-streets,  and  was  admirably  placed  for  defence. 
But  the  fight  was  a  long  and  stubborn  one,  lasting 
nearly  three  hours ;  and  thousands  of  the  enemy  came 
up  to  support  their  first  line  of  assault.  It  was  this 
really  that  undid  them :  for  the  Russian  Commander, 
perceiving  that  the  hamlet  was  becoming  of  great  im- 
portance, and  that  its  loss  would  probably  mean  a. 


236       AN  ENGLISHMAN  IN  THE  RUSSIAN  RANKS 

defeat  of  the  Russians,  sent  very  strong  reinforce- 
ments, as  well  as  opened  a  heavy  artillery  fire  on  the 
German  supports.  Finally,  about  8,000  infantry 
charged  through  the  place,  killing  most  of  the  enemy 
who  had  got  into  the  streets,  and  driving  off  the  whole 
herd  of  them,  with  a  loss  of  10,000  in  killed  and 
wounded,  and  about  400  unhurt  prisoners. 

As  the  enemy  retired,  the  Cossacks,  with  a  regi- 
ment of  dragoons,  again  charged  them;  and  de- 
stroyed some  hundreds  more.  They  went  too  far, 
however,  got  under  a  fire  of  case-shot,  and  lost  a  con- 
siderable number  of  men  and  horses. 

The  close  of  the  day  was  devoted  to  a  tremendous 
fire  of  artillery  on  both  sides,  and  not  a  house  was  left 
standing  in  our  hamlet ;  and  as  we  had  no  trenches  to 
take  shelter  in,  our  losses  were  severe.  We  were 
ordered  to  fall  back  about  a  verst,  though  without 
breaking  the  line ;  and  took  post  behind  a  wood,  the 
trees  of  which  we  felled  to  form  an  abattis.  In  this 
■we  left  a  strong  support,  while  at  dawn  we  tried  the 
German  tactics,  and  advanced  to  make  an  assault  on 
their  position. 

We  had,  however,  three  versts  to  cover,  and  we 
found  their  outposts  well  advanced;  so  that  we  did 
not  succeed  in  surprising  them.  The  alarm  was  soon 
given;  and  they  opened  fire  with  shrapnel  and  case, 
sweeping  the  plain  with  a  storm  of  metal,  and  causing 
us  great  loss,  though  we  did  not  follow  their  foolish 
tactics  of  advancing  in  close  columns.  On  the  con- 
trary, we  spread  out  fan-wise,  in  imitation  of  the 
Oossacks,  closing  in  gradually  as  we  ran.     Most  of 


THE  FIGHTING  BEFORE  PLOCK  237 

the  enemy's  outposts  were  overtaken,  and  bayoneted 
to  a  man,  notwithstanding  their  appeals  for  mercy. 
But  when  we  came  to  their  lines,  we  found  that  they 
had  piled  up  snow,  and  beaten  it  down  hard,  to  make 
a  breastwork;  and  hidden  a  network  of  barbed  wire 
under  loose  snow  in  front  of  their  position.  We  got 
on  this  before  we  discovered  it,  and  the  results  were 
terrible.  It  was  impossible  to  do  anything,  or  to 
live  under  such  a  fire  as  was  poured  upon  us.  The 
brigade,  formed  of  the  two  regiments  to  which  we 
were  attached,  broke  and  fled,  leaving  two-thirds  of 
their  number  behind.  When  we  got  back  to  our 
own  position,  and  saw  how  many  friends,  and  famil- 
iar faces,  were  missing,  many  of  the  men  broke  down 
and  wept  bitterly.  Captain  Sawmine  was  wounded 
in  three  places ;  but  he  kept  on  his  feet,  and  refused 
to  quit  his  company. 

A  great  gloom  settled  on  our  division:  for  it  be- 
came known,  somehow  or  other,  that  a  great  disaster 
had  overtaken  the  Tenth  Army  (not  army  corps)  ; 
and  that  one  entire  corps  of  it  had  been  cut  to  pieces. 
It  was  said  that  a  great  gap  had  been  made  in  our 
line,  and  that  the  Germans  were  rushing  forward  to  ■• 
cut  off  100,000  men.  The  news  did  not  alarm  us  so 
much  as  create  anger.  Nobody  doubted  the  correct- 
ness of  the  rumour;  especially  when  the  Germans 
shouted  it  to  our  outposts;  and  dropped  messages, 
containing  the  information,  from  aeroplanes. 

It  was  further  confirmed  the  next  day  by  the  orders 
which  we  received  to  fall  back  as  rapidly  as  was 
consistent  with  the  safety  of  the  division.     Four  bat- 


238       AN  ENGLISHMAN  IN  THE  RUSSIAN  RANKS 

teries  of  artillery  and  1,500  Cossacks  came  to  cover 
our  retreat ;  but  the  Germans  pressed  us  so  hard  that 
we  turned  and  fought  a  desperate  rear-guard  battle. 
The  foe  had  to  meet  "  angry  fellows  "  with  a  ven- 
geance ;  and  they  got  such  a  lesson  that  towards  eve- 
ning they  permitted  us  to  march  off  in  parade  order 
without  daring  to  follow  us  one  yard.  They  had 
more  than  doubled  us  in  numbers  and  guns;  and  it 
must  seem  incredible  to  people  who  did  not  actually 
witness  the  operations  that  such  tremendous  and  fre- 
quent losses  could  be  sustained  by  any  army  which 
continued  to  exist  in  the  field.  I  can  only  give  my 
assurance  that  I  fully  believe  all  I  state ;  and  think  I 
understate,  rather  than  exaggerate,  the  given  num- 
bers of  killed,  wounded  and  prisoners.  That  such 
terrible  losses  should  not  incapacitate  the  armies 
engaged  shows  the  enormous  resources  they  had  in 
men  and  material :  and,  so  far  as  concerns  Germany, 
I  am  convinced,  in  money  too. 

From  the  first  I  considered  it  a  pity  tUat  Russia 
could  not  put  more  men  in  the  field.  She  might 
have  placed  12,000,000  young  and  vigorous  men  on 
the  Russian-Austrian  frontiers ;  but  she  was  quite  in- 
capable of  finding  transport,  food  and  material,  or 
the  proper  proportion  of  artillery,  for  such  a  vast 
host :  and  this  is  where  she  failed.  More  money,  and 
a  better  system  of  railways,  and  the  end  of  Germany 
would  have  come  within  six  months  of  the  outbreak 
of  the  war. 

!Nor  is  much  to  be  said  in  favour  of  my  own  coun- 
try.    The  wealth,  and  the  best  blood  of  England,  are 


THE  FIGHTING  BEFORE  FLOCK  239 

"being  frittered  away  in  partial  operations.  We  can 
effect  no  real  progress  with  250,000  or  300,000  men. 
At  least  2,000,000  should  be  in  the  field  —  3,000,000 
would  be  better.  How  are  the  men  to  be  got  without 
conscription?  Kestore  the  old  militia,  which  ought 
never  to  have  been  abolished;  and  ballot  for  it. 
Press-gangs,  if  necessary.  Better  do  this  than  perish 
as  a  nation,  which  is  what  we  are  in  imminent  danger 
of  doing.  The  people  who  cannot  see  this  will  not 
see  it  until,  perhaps,  they  are  forced  to  see  it  —  a 
trifle  too  late. 

England  is  not  a  military  nation  in  the  usual  sense 
of  the  words.  Nowadays  a  first-class  Power  must  he 
a  military  nation,  or  go  to  the  wall.  What  makes  a 
military  nation?  Having  millions  of  men,  fully 
armed  and  equipped,  ready  for  action  at  one  Jiours 
notice.  England  will  not  have  this !  Then  some 
bad  day  she  will  go  to  the  wall,  and  go  there  pretty 
quickly.  This  is  how  nations  will  cease  to  be  nations 
in  future.  Ten  billion  shells,  a  hundred  billion  cart- 
ridges. "  All  dead  stock,"  says  the  financier. 
"  What  dreadful  wickedness  to  waste  so  much  money 
on  munitions !  "  says  the  economist.  But  when  war 
comes  on  a  large  scale  the  shells  and  cartridges  have 
to  be  found  at  double  and  treble  cost.  It  is  a  sad 
way  of  spending  huge  sums  of  money;  but  it  is  the 
only  real  "  ISTational  Insurance  " :  the  only  way  of 
securing  real  peace  and  liberty.  And  whatever  hap- 
pens, and  whatever  is  the  consequence,  I,  for  one, 
will  not  live  under  the  regime  of  such  a  scoundrel  as 
the  Hell-Hound  of  Berlin  —  a  wretch  who,  while  pos- 


240      AN  ENGLISHMAN  IN  THE  RUSSIAN  RANKS 

ing  as  a  God-fearing  man,  has  brought  heart-torment 
on  millions  of  better  men  than  himself.  And  these 
are  not  the  words  of  passion.  I  am  not  a  fiery  boy. 
I  am  an  old  man,  a  grey-haired  veteran.  Read  it 
with  shame  you  young  and  able-bodied  who  have 
failed  your  country  in  her  hour  of  peril.  Your  best 
excuse  is  that  you  do  not  realize  how  real  and  how 
near  the  danger  is.  Isolated  acts  of  heroism  are  not 
rictories.  Our  little  army  is  a  splendid  little  army, 
but  it  is  a  little  army.  One  serious  disaster  to  it, 
and  in  a  week  this  country  might  be  in  the  hands  of 
the  enemy  from  Land's  End  to  John  o'  Groats.  In 
such  a  case  our  only  hope  would  be  the  Navy.  Sole 
hopes,  like  last  shillings,  are  things  to  be  deprecated. 


CHAPTER  XX 

HAED    MAECHING   AND   DESULTORY    FIGHTING 

[We  had  no  rest  for  thirty  hours.  During  this  time 
■we  inarched  and  fought  incessantly,  falling  back 
about  sixty  versts  to  ISTovogeorgevsk,  where  we  were 
joined  by  the  233rd  Reserve  Regiment  from  Warsaw, 
where  they  had  arrived  from  ISTovgorod  only  a  few 
hours  previously.  Other  divisions  also  received 
strong  reinforcements,  which  were  of  great  value  to 
us,  not  only  by  reason  of  their  physical  aid,  but  also 
because  they  greatly  revived  the  spirits  of  our  worn- 
out  fighting-men,  many  of  whom  dropped  from  ex- 
haustion the  moment  we  were  out  of  reach  of  the  en- 
emy and  a  halt  was  called.  I  did  myself ;  and  believe 
I  should  have  died  had  not  a  soldier  given  me  haK  a 
bottle  of  rum,  and  a  loaf  of  rye  bread.  Where  he  ob- 
tained them  I  do  not  know ;  but  many  of  the  men  got 
food  at  ISTovogeorgevsk  which  was  not  served  out  by 
the  commissariat. 

It  was  seldom  that  any  spirits  were  obtainable 
other  than  vodka,  which  is  frightful  stuff  and  has 
more  than  once  fetched  the  skin  off  my  gums  and  lips. 
Rum,  therefore,  was  simply  nectar.  Touching  this 
subject:  the  Russian  soldier,  and  the  Russian  peas- 
ant, are  often  represented  as  great  drunkards.  It 
is  simply  a  libel  on  an  abstemious  and  frugal  people. 
The  whole  of  the  time  I  was  in  Russia  I  did  not  see 

241 


242      AN  ENGLISHMAN  IN  THE  RUSSIAN  RANKS 

more  than  fifty  drunken  people ;  and  they  were  Ger- 
man officers  and  soldiers,  who,  occasionally,  when 
captured,  were  as  drunk  as  lords. 

During  the  retreat  of  thirty  hours  most  of  the  men 
fired  about  500  cartridges.  These  were  brought  to 
the  firing-line  by  light  carts,  which  galloped  along, 
and  threw  the  packets  on  the  ground  for  the  men  to 
pick  up. 

The  Germans  sometimes  pressed  us  pretty  closely ; 
but  a  bear  robbed  of  her  whelps  is  an  awkward  cus- 
tomer to  deal  with;  and  notwithstanding  their  supe- 
rior numbers,  they  soon  learned  a  great  repsect  for 
us.  Our  losses  were  heavy ;  theirs  were  not  light.  A 
pretty  good  sprinkling  of  bodies  was  left  on  the  road 
ISTovogeorgevsk ;  and  when  the  artillery  got  a  chance 
they  added  heaps  to  the  sprinkling. 

Captain  Sawmine  was  badly,  but  not  dangerously, 
wounded.  Red  Cross  men,  doctors  and  officers  tried 
to  induce  him  to  get  into  a  cart,  and  go  to  the  rear ; 
but  he  would  not.  "  I  mean  to  die  with  my  men," 
was  all  he  would  say;  and,  indeed,  I  thought  it  was 
coming  to  that.  He  fainted  twice;  and  sometimes 
we  were  compelled  to  carry  him  a  verst  or  two ;  but 
as  soon  as  he  gained  a  little  strength  he  insisted  on 
marching  like  the  rest  of  us.  We  all  carried  rifles ; 
and  he  shot  off  nearly  as  many  rounds  as  the  men,  and 
shot  them  well,  too.  It  was  not  until  we  reached  l^o- 
vogeorgevsk  that  his  hurts  were  properly  dressed. 

We  went  back  to  our  old  lodgings,  where  we  en- 
joyed the  refreshment  of  a  good  meal  and  a  long 
sleep.     Large  bodies  of  troops  were  massed  along 


HARD  MARCHING  AND  DESULTORY  FIGHTING      243 

the  Vistula,  and  away  towards  Pultusk,  on  the  Kiver 
IsTarew,  a  great  part  of  the  garrison  of  Warsaw  having 
come  out  to  meet  the  danger.  The  Germans  were 
effectually  checked  by  these  fresh  troops,  which  gave 
the  exhausted  men  a  chance  to  recoup. 

Also  thousands  of  men  were  hourly  arriving  by 
train  from  Vilna  and  other  northern  garrisons.  Ev- 
erybody knew  that  the  enemy  must  be  beaten  back 
immediately,  or  they  would  be  in  Warsaw  in  a  few 
hours,  although  the  defences  of  the  city  were  being 
daily  strengthened. 

At  first  a  good  deal  of  the  fighting  was  skirmishing 
along  the  banks  of  the  rivers  and  streams,  of  which 
there  are  many  small  ones  in  this  region  which  are 
fringed  with  wdllows,  and  in  summer  half-hidden  in 
beds  of  thick  rushes.  Of  course  the  rushes  were  now 
dead,  or  lying  low,  a  mass  of  withered  vegetation; 
but  the  willows  and  bushes  afforded  sufficient  con- 
cealment to  the  marksmen  to  enable  them  to  keep  up 
a  continual  skirmish.  I  am  not  sure  that  this  kind 
of  fighting  is  of  much  use.  It  costs  a  number  of 
lives  on  both  sides,  but  really  effects  nothing,  unless 
it  is  used  as  a  screen  to  more  important  movements. 

Though  some  of  the  streams  were  fordable,  and  all 
the  smaller  ones  frozen  over,  the  enemy  made  no  at- 
tempt to  cross  any  of  them.  They  appeared  to  fear 
a  turning  movement  from  the  direction  of  Pultusk, 
and  retired  in  a  way  that  was  inexplicable  to  us  at 
the  time.  We  soon  learned,  however,  that  they  had 
been  forced  back  from  the  line  of  the  ISTarew  with 
great  loss;  and  were  in  full  and  disorderly  retreat. 


244      AN  ENGLISHMAN  IN  THE  RUSSIAN  RANKS 

The  pressure  must  have  been  great:  for  the  large 
forces  in  front  of  Novogeorgevsk  suddenly  began  to 
retire ;  and  our  artillery  cut  them  up  cruelly.  They 
liad  not  a  sufficient  number  of  guns  to  make  an  ef- 
fectual reply,  which  seems  to  show  that  they  had  sent 
the  bulk  of  their  batteries  to  the  ]!^arew.  It  is  a  com- 
m.on  movement  of  the  Germans  when  they  are  hard 
pressed  at  any  point,  and  also  when  they  are  gaining 
an  advantage,  to  bring  up  every  gun  they  can  move 
from  other  corps.  This  sometimes  gives  them  the 
victory;  but  occasionally  brings  disaster  upon  them. 
The  Germans  are  the  gamblers  of  war.  They  seem 
ready  to  throw  away  men  and  guns  on  the  bare  chance 
of  winning  —  and  losing,  care  not,  but  hope  for  "  bet- 
ter luck  next  time."  Their  officers  certainly  do  not 
care  twopence  for  the  lives  of  their  men. 

About  this  time,  too,  I  noticed  some  deterioration 
in  the  quality  of  the  German  troops.  In  the  first 
part  of  the  campaign  they  never  sustained  a  rout,  as 
I  have  several  times  stated ;  but  as  the  winter  wore  on 
their  retreats  were  often  disorderly,  as  I  have  men- 
tioned above. 

Our  division  took  no  part  in  this  fighting.  Prob- 
ably those  in  supreme  command  thought  we  had  had 
enough  of  it  recently;  and  they  were  about  right. 
If  ever  a  division  deserved  the  name  of  "  fighting 
division,"  it  was  ours:  and  yet,  strange  as  it  may 
seem,  I  do  not  know  precisely  what  we  were.  At  one 
time  we  were  known  as  the  Seventh  Division  of  the 
Ninth  Army;  and  after  a  time  on  detached  duty,  as 
the  Thirteenth  of  the  Eighth  Army.     Then  again 


HARD  MARCHING  AND  DESULTOR-y  FIGHTING       245 

we  were  unattached.  There  is  little  doubt  that  the 
division  was  made  up  of  odd  battalions  and  regi- 
ments, the  remnants  of  corps  which  had  been  prac- 
tically wiped  out.  There  was  always  a  disinclination, 
to  give  me  much  information  on  the  subject;  and  I 
thought  it  unwise  to  be  too  persistent  in  my  inquiries. 
It  is  certain  that  we  were  made  up,  afterwards,  of 
reservists,  and  were  used  to  temporarily  strengthen 
other  corps.  Of  the  Vladimirs  not  a  dozen  of  the 
original  men  remained;  and  two  of  these  were  offi- 
cers ;  and  the  battalion,  though  still  retaining  its  des- 
ignation, was  numbered  the  3rd  of  the  second  regi- 
ment. From  time  to  time  we  received  recruits,  gener- 
ally the  remnants  of  corps  which  had  become  "  wiped 
out,"  a  very  frequent  occurrence  in  this  war,  when 
whole  regiments  were  often  destroyed,  perhaps  a  com- 
pany, or  a  part  of  one,  escaping.  While  we  were  at 
!N'ovogeorgevsk  a  number  of  cavalrymen  who  had  lost 
their  horses  were  sent  to  us,  bringing  the  battalion  up 
to  about  500  men.  The  whole  division  was  under 
3,000'.     Such  are  the  losses  of  war. 

When  the  enemy  showed  signs  of  wavering,  the 
fresh  troops  in  our  neighbourhood  made  a  vigorous 
attack  upon  them,  with  the  result  that  they  gave  way 
almost  at  once.  Evidently  their  reverses  further 
north  had  demoralized  them. 

On  the  26th,  at  night,  we  heard  that  the  enemy 
had  been  crushed  at  Przasnysz.  The  enemy  must 
have  heard  it  too :  for  they  drew  back  their  right  wing 
towards  the  north-west;  and  when  our  men  pressed 
them  hard,  retreated  with  more  precipitation  than  I 


246      AN  ENGLISHMAN  IN  THE  RUSSIAN  RANKS 

had  ever  seen  them  do  on  any  previous  occasion. 

Our  division  was  following  in  support,  and  we  had 
little  or  no  fighting.  The  ground  over  which  we 
inarched  was  chiefly  fields  and  frozen  marshes.  The 
artillery  used  the  roads  where  they  could  discern 
them;  but  this  was  no  easy  task,  the  country  being 
one  flat  sheet  of  snow,  with  few  trees,  and  only  ruins 
of  houses:  in  fact,  the  country  had  been  rendered 
desolate,  and  the  people  had  fled  to  the  towns. 

We  passed  by  thousands  of  dead  and  wounded, 
scattered  in  all  directions ;  for  there  had  been  no  de- 
fence of  positions  here,  but  a  retiring  fight  in  the 
open.  The  Red  Cross  men  picked  up  the  hurt:  the 
dead  were  left  where  they  lay;  the  usual  custom  in 
this  campaign.  Every  now  and  then  we  met  parties 
of  Cossacks  and  infantry,  escorting  prisoners  to  the 
rear.  The  total  losses  of  the  enemy  appeared  to  be 
at  least  three  to  one  of  ours. 

There  was  no  halt  at  night ;  and  cavalry  of  all  kinds 
—  dragoons,  hussars,  lancers,  chasseurs,  and  the 
ubiquitous  Cossacks  —  were  constantly  overtaking 
US,  and  pressing  to  the  front  in  pursuit  of  the  flying 
enemy:  for  flying  they  were.  These  German  boys, 
who  had  fought  so  well  in  their  first  onset,  when  tired 
out  and  exhausted  by  continuous  exertion,  broke  down 
completely:  and  there  were  some  pitiful  scenes:  as, 
for  instance,  when  some  twenty  or  thirty  of  them  were 
discovered  hidden  in  the  cellars  of  a  wrecked  house. 
One  of  them  had  the  courage  to  fire  his  rifle  up  the 
stairs  and  kill  a  Cossack  as  he  sat  eating  his  ration. 
This  was  considered  to  be  a  murder  by  the  Cossack's 


HARD  MARCHING  AND  DESULTORY  FIGHTING      247 

comrades,  and  notwithstanding  that  the  Germans  im- 
mediately surrendered,  the  whole  party  was  hanged 
to  the  fruit-trees  in  the  garden  of  the  house  —  the 
only  ones  in  the  neighbourhood. 

I  do  not  think  any  of  these  boys  were  more  than 
twenty  years  old;  half  of  them  certainly  were  not 
more  than  sixteen  or  seventeen;  and  they  made  a 
terrible  fuss  over  their  fate,  screaming  and  crying 
like  small  children ;  and  one  or  two  grovelling  in  the 
snow,  and  begging  for  mercy  in  the  most  piteous  way. 
In  vain.  They  were  all  strung  up ;  and  as  no  drop 
was  given  to  break  their»necks,  some  were  a  long  time 
dying.  I  saw  one  still  struggling  after  he  had  been 
suspended  twenty  minutes;  and  others  were  appar- 
ently not  quite  dead  until  a  bystander  put  an  end  to 
their  suffering  with  revolver-shots.  It  is  probable 
that  these  lads  would  not  have  been  discovered  had 
not  one  of  them  shot  the  Cossack. 

The  hiding  in  cellars  of  small  parties  of  the  enemy 
was  a  frequent  occurrence.  They  would  probably 
have  often  escaped  detection  had  it  not  been  for  their 
own  folly.  They  did  not  seem  to  be  able  to  resist 
the  temptation  to  fire  on  any  of  our  men  who  chanced 
to  enter  the  houses  where  they  lay  concealed,  prob- 
ably thinking  they  were  isolated  squads,  and  unsup- 
ported by  stronger  bodies. 

Amongst  other  strange  incidents  was  that  of  a 
motor-car  which  was  taken  past  us  on  the  28  th.  It 
was  a  closed  carriage,  and  contained  three  ladies,  and 
a  large  quantity  of  articles  of  dress,  jewellery,  and 
plate.     The  women  were  said  to  be  officers'  wives; 


248      AN  ENGLISHMAN  IN  THE  RUSSIAN  RANKS 

and  the  goods,  plunder :  and  there  were  many  stories 
prevailing  amongst  our  troops  of  robberies  of  houses 
by  Prussian  women  of  considerable  social  rank.  It 
was  quite  a  common  incident  for  us  to  recover  cars 
and  carts  full  of  spoil  which  had  been  taken  from 
the  houses  of  the  Polish  nobility  of  the  district. 
What  became  of  the  thieves  I  do  not  know ;  but  in  the 
case  of  women  I  believe  they  escaped  unpunished. 

Other  things  we  captured  were  carts,  waggons, 
and  conveyances  laden  with  provisions  and  clothing 
materials,  which  had  been  stolen  from  Polish  towns, 
villages  and  private  houses.  It  was  commonly  re- 
ported that  the  Germans  were  in  great  straits  for 
food ;  and  whether  this  was  so  or  not,  they  stripped 
those  tracts  of  country  which  were  overrun  by  them 
of  everything  eatable.  They  even  dug  up  the  pota- 
toes and  turnips  (in  the  autumn,  of  course)  ;  and 
when  they  got  the  chance,  reaped  the  corn-fields,  send- 
ing this  produce  to  Germany,  unless  we  were  fortu- 
nate enough  to  intercept  it.  This  action  may  have 
been  dictated  by  want,  but  was  more  likely  to  have 
been  the  outcome  of  economical  provision  for  the  fu- 
ture, combined  with  their  acknowledged  policy  of 
making  war  as  frightful  as  possible  to  the  civil  popu- 
lation of  their  foe's  country.  It  entailed  terrible  mis- 
ery on  the  poor  people,  and  was  the  cause  of  the  towns 
and  villages  of  whole  regions  being  abandoned  by 
the  inhabitants,  many  of  whom  were  said  to  have 
died  of  starvation.  Others  had  to  apply  to  relief 
committees. 

I  have  read  descriptions  of  the  state  of  Germany 


HARD  MARCHING  AND  DESULTORY  FIGHTING      249 

after  the  Thirty  Years'  War.     I  should  think  it  could 
not  have  been  worse  than  many  parts  of  Poland 
now  are.     The  enemy  has  turned  whole  districts  into 
a  desert,  destitute  of  everything  that  is  necessary 
to  the  existence  of  man.     They  have  even  wantonly 
cut  down  the  fruit-trees,  and  filled  the  wells  with 
filth.     Barns  and  storehouses  have  been  burnt,   as 
well  as  dwellings,  in  many  cases  whole  villages  hav- 
ing been  given  to  the  flames.     As  a  rule,  however,  the 
towns  have  been  spared,  though  I  passed  through  a 
few  that  had  suffered  severely,  if  they  were  not  quite 
ruined.     The  enemy  had  frequently  emulated  the 
*^ crop-ears"  of* our  Cromwellian  period,  and  stabled 
their  horses  in  the  churches.     Still  more  frequently 
they  had  desecrated  and  wrecked  the  sacred  edifices 
i —  one  of  the  most  unwise  things  they  could  do :  for 
to  provoke  a  people  through  their  religion  is  equal 
to  losing  a  battle,  and  a  big  battle  too,  to  say  nothing 
of  what  the  Most  High  may  possibly  think  of  it. 
This  does  not  count  with  the  Germans;  but  it  may 
possibly  count  in  favour  of  their  enemies,  when  the 
day  of  reckoning  comes ! 

The  peasantry,  rendered  homeless  and  desperate, 
and  enraged  at  the  violation  of  things  they  held  to  be 
in  the  highest  degree  sacred,  were  a  thorn  in  the  side 
of  Russia's  foes.  Living  in  the  wood,  prowling  about 
their  burnt  homes  in  the  dead  of  night,  they  often 
came  upon  the  enemy's  videttes  and  pickets,  and  made 
them  prisoners.  I  do  not  think  they  imitated  the 
Cossacks,  and  often  took  the  lives  of  the  men  they 
surprised ;  but  they  did  so  occasionally.     They  made 


250       AN  ENGLISHMAN  IN  THE  RUSSIAN  RANKS 

splendid  scouts,  and  helped  the  Russian  Army  im- 
mensely in  this  way,  supplying  information  which  it 
"would  have  been  difficult,  or  rather  impossible,  for 
organized  parties  of  armed  men  to  have  obtained. 
The  women,  especially,  were  useful  in  this  way :  for 
"with  that  cunning  and  subterfuge  which  nobody  con- 
demns in  the  female  character,  they  often  ingratiated 
themselves  with  the  German  officers  and  soldiers,  and 
so  obtained  access  to  knowledge  of  their  movements 
and  circumstances  which  no  amount  of  duplicity  or 
skill  would  have  enabled  a  man  to  acquire.  And  a 
day  or  two  afterwards  the  hussies,  perhaps,  would  bo 
stabbing  their  "  friends  "  with  pitchforks,  their  fa- 
vourite weapons,  next  to  their  tongues,  which  they 
often  used  with  great  effect ;  for  it  was  quite  a  usual 
circumstance  for  women  to  join  in  any  fighting  that 
took  place  in  their  neighbourhood.  The  men,  also, 
joined  the  soldiers  on  the  battle-field,  and  used  any 
"weapon  they  could  obtain,  but  chiefly  the  instruments 
"with  which,  in  normal  times,  they  tilled  the  ground. 
To  take  up  again  the  thread  of  this  narrative.  A 
great  deal  of  fighting  went  on  in  our  front,  but  the 
weakness  of  our  division  kept  us  out  of  it.  We  were 
still  further  reduced  in  numbers  by  being  called  on 
to  furnish  many  detachments  to  gu  1  prisoners  to 
the  rear.  Under  these  circumstances  i  had  to  amuse 
myself  with  such  rumours,  and  small  items  of  news, 
as  came  in  my  way.  From  these  I  gathered  that  the 
onward  movements  of  the  enemy  were  completely 
checked;  and  it  was  even  asserted  that  the  Russian 
troops  were  again  on  German  soil.     This  rumour 


HARD  MARCHING  AND  DESULTORY  FIGHTING      251 

was  not  satisfactorily  confirmed ;  but  I  cannot  doubt 
that  the  enemy  was  forced  back  to  the  frontier  line 
in  the  neighbourhood  of  Mlawa  and  Chorzellen.  The 
latter  place  is  a  small  Russian  town  actually  on  the 
frontier,  and  more  than  thirty  versts  from  a  railway- 
station.  Mlawa  is  also  a  Russian  town  five  versts 
from  the  border,  with  a  station  on  the  Praga  (suburb 
of  Warsaw)  German  railway,  which  was  held  by  the 
enemy.  The  two  places  are  about  thirty  versts  dis- 
tant from  each  other:  so  it  was  evident  the  foe  had 
fallen  back  on  a  pretty  wide  front. 

One  of  the  most  striking  episodes  of  this  period 
was  my  first  sight  of  the  Russian  Commander-in- 
Chief,  the  Grand  Duke  ^Nicholas.  I  had,  of  course, 
heard  frequent  mention  of  him ;  but  it  was  never  very 
clear  to  me  where  he  was  —  I  mean  at  what  particu- 
lar spot.  Though  not  such  a  galloper  (to  use  a  miK- 
tary  term)  as  the  Kaiser,  he  still  seemed  to  be  here, 
there  and  everywhere.  One  week  he  was  asserted  to 
be  in  direct  personal  Command  of  our  corps:  thd 
next  he  was  reported  to  be  in  Galicia.  But  the  Duke 
is  anything  but  a  limelight  gentleman;  the  German 
is  nothing  unless  he  is  one.  The  Duke  is  a  great 
conunander,  and  no  mean  soldier:  the  Kaiser  is  also 
a  great  commander,  but  no  soldier  at  all.  The  first 
can  say  what  he  wants,  and  can  do  it:  the  second 
can  say  what  he  wants,  but  cannot  do  it;  he  has  to 
rely  on  his  subordinates. 

The  Grand  Duke  Nicholas  is  a  big  man,  yet  not 
stout.  He  appears  to  stand  considerably  more  than 
six  feet  high  —  I  should  think  about  six  feet  six. 


252       AN  ENGLISHMAN  IN  THE  RUSSIAN  RANKS 

inches.  He  is  very  straight  and  upright  in  carriage, 
but  scarcely  with  the  bearing  of  a  soldier.  He  looks 
more  like  an  athletic  priest  than  a  military  man,  es- 
pecially as  he  has  a  grave  countenance,  and  seldom, 
or  never,  smiles.  He  is  an  affable  man,  though ;  and 
seemingly  quite  devoid  of  pride.  He  wears  a  plain 
uniform,  devoid  of  ornament,  and  carries  a  stick  in 
place  of  a  sword.  Apparently  he  does  not  look  about 
him ;  but  nothing  escapes  his  eye ;  and,  like  all  great 
men,  he  is  not  above  dealing  with  details  even  minute 
ones. 

He  does  very  little  writing,  however,  but  likes  to 
sit  on  a  chair  and  explain  his  wishes  to  an  audience 
of  officers.  Those  whom  they  concern  make  notes  o£ 
his  orders,  which  he  afterwards  looks  over,  but,  I  am 
told,  does  not  sign.  If  I  were  one  of  his  subordi- 
nates I  should  think  this  method  had  its  drawbacks. 
What  if  a  misunderstanding  occurred  ?  Everything 
would  favour  the  commander,  and  all  would  neces- 
sarily go  against  the  commanded.  But  perhaps  this 
would  not  matter  in  a  country  like  Russia. 

One  thing  is  certain:  that  if  the  Grand  Duke  is 
not  one  of  the  greatest  commanders  this  war  has  pro- 
duced, the  Germans,  at  any  rate,  have  not  been  able; 
to  catch  him  napping.  His  fault  seems  to  be  pre- 
cisely similar  to  those  which  afflict  the  other  Generals 
of  the  War :  they  do  not  get  effectively  driven  back ; 
but  they  cannot  get  forward.  The  trench  business 
is  one  too  many  for  them ;  and  the  art  of  outflanking 
lias  clearly  not  been  sufficiently  studied ;  while  the  art 
of  effectual  retaliation  seems  to  be  utterly  unknown. 


CHAPTER  XXI 

EECONNAISSANCE    AND   TRENCH    FIGHTING 

I  HAVE  not  yet  mentioned  the  Bactrian  camels  which 
are  used  in  thousands  for  Russian  transport.  Dur- 
ing the  winter  the  snow  was  so  deep  that  the  usual 
indications  of  the  roadways  were  completely  buried ; 
and  even  in  the  few  cases  where  they  could  be  dis- 
cerned, it  was  most  difficult  to  traverse  them  with 
either  horse-waggons  or  motor-cars;  indeed,  the  last 
mentioned  are  useless  in  snow  when  it  lies  beyond 
a  certain  depth  (though  much  depends  on  the  power 
of  the  car)  ;  and  guns,  also,  are  impeded  by  the  same 
cause. 

Many  persons  think  that  the  foot  of  a  camel  is  pe- 
culiarly suited  to  traversing  deserts,  and  is  unfitted 
for  progress  over  other  kinds  of  ground.  This  may 
be  true  of  the  dromedary,  or  African  one-humped 
camel ;  but  it  is  not  correct  of  the  Bactrian,  or  two- 
humped  camel,  the  species  used  by  the  Russians. 
This  animal  can  keep  its  footing  on  the  most  slippery 
ground,  and  travel  with  facility  over  the  deepest 
snow  without  sinking  in  to  an  appreciable  depth. 
The  Russians  say  that  it  will  also  go  with  speed  over 
sand,  rock  and  grass  land,  but  founders  in  bogs  and 
morasses.     It  carries  a  weight  of  400  to  500  pounds, 

English ;  and  proved  to  be  very  useful  throughout  the 

253 


254      AN  ENGLISHMAN  IN  THE  RUSSIAN  RANKS 

winter,  until  the  thaw  came,  and  three  feet  of  mud 
succeeded  six  feet  of  snow ;  and  then  nothing  on  earth 
could  drag  itself  through  the  miserable  mire  at  a 
greater  rate  than  a  funeral  pace. 

But  all  the  camels  in  the  country  were  not  enough 
to  bring  up  the  necessaries  of  the  army ;  and  the  men, 
though   fed   and   kept   supplied  with    ammunition, 
were  compelled  to  lack  many  things  that  would  have 
increased  both   their  comfort  and   their  efficiency. 
Boots  especially,  and  other  wearing  articles,  were 
often  badly  wanted;  and  many  of  the  men  suffered 
greatly   from   frost-bites.     My   own   feet   were   be- 
coming very  tender  by  the  month  of  March,  when 
the  sun  sometimes  shone  with  sufficient  strength  to 
make  the  surface  of  the  snow  wet:  and  this  added 
greatly  to  our  troubles.     It  is  essential  to  the  welfare 
of  troops  that  after  marches  they  should  have  dry 
socks  and  a  change  of  boots;  otherwise  they  are  al- 
most sure  to  suffer  from  sore  feet.     It  was  the  habit 
of  the  Kussian  infantry  to  take  their  socks  off  at 
night  and  dry  them  at  the  camp  fires ;  but  when  in 
the  presence  of  the  enemy  we  were  often  forbidden 
to  make  fires ;  and  at  other  times  there  was  not  suf- 
ficient fuel  obtainable  to  supply  the  whole  of  our 
vast  hosts:  nor  was  there  always  a  full  supply  of 
food,  though  it  was  the  custom  of  the  Kussian  soldiers 
to  eat  those  horses  and  camels  which  were  killed. 
There  is  but  little  difference  between  horseflesh  and 
beef,  and  I  have  eaten  it  at  scores  of  meals.     I  have 
also  tasted  camel's  flesh;  and  have  nothing  to  say 
in  its  favour.     It  is  coarse,  tough  and  flavourless. 


RECONNAISSANCE  AND  TRENCH  FIGHTING      255 

The  Germans  having  retired  to  carefully  en- 
trenched positions,  from  which  we  found  it  impos- 
sible to  force  them,  a  lull  ensued ;  although  occasion- 
ally attempts  were  made  to  surprise  and  assault  some 
of  the  enemy's  positions. 

On  the  5th  March  the  Germans  squirted  liquid 
fire  over  one  of  these  surprise  parties  which  had  got 
close  up  to  their  entrenchments,  and  was  endeavour- 
ing to  remove  the  wire-entanglements.  It  was  the 
first  time  such  a  device  had  been  reported ;  and  there 
was  some  mystery  concerning  its  nature.  Some 
thought  that  boiling  pitch  had  been  used ;  others  called 
it  Greek  fire.  I  do  not  think  it  was  pitch,  although  I 
did  not  actually  see  it  thrown.  I  examined  the 
clothing  of  some  of  the  men,  who  reported  that  the 
holes  which  were  burnt  smouldered,  and  were  not 
easily  put  out.  The  fire  came  over  them  in  a  shower 
of  sparks,  and  was  not  thrown  by  hand ;  but  squirted 
out  of  a  tube  of  some  kind.  The  only  actual  injury 
that  I  could  discover  it  did  was  in  the  case  of  one 
man  who  was  badly  burned  about  the  face  and  prob- 
ably blinded.  It  is  astonishing  what  a  number  of 
devilish  contrivances  these  dastardly  Germans  have 
invented  and  used  in  this  war;  and  it  is  clear  that 
they  would  resort  to  the  foullest  possible  means,  if 
this  would  give  them  the  victory. 

The  holes  burnt  in  the  coats  of  the  men  were 
mostly  small;  but,  where  they  were  close  together, 
quite  destroyed  the  garment,  appearing  to  have  rotted 
the  material.  In  my  opinion  the  substance  of  this 
fire  was  some  kind  of  melted  metal,  mixed  with  wax^ 


256      AN  ENGLISHMAN  IN  THE  RUSSIAN  RANKS 

matter.  It  was  tenacious,  and  could  not  be  wiped 
off;  and  left  a  light  grey  residuum  on  the  cloth.  It 
did  not  burn  its  way  through  to  the  flesh  in  those  cases 
which  I  examined. 

About  this  time  I  heard  mentioned  the  poisonous 
gas  which  has  since  become  notorious.  The  Ger- 
mans, I  believe,  had  not  yet  resorted  to  sending  the 
horrid  stuff  in  clouds  against  a  position;  but  they 
fired  shells  which  emitted  it  in  considerable  quanti- 
ties, and  caused  some  deaths,  and  many  disablements, 
amongst  the  Russian  troops.  I  saw  some  of  the  shells 
burst;  and  the  gas,  which  gradually  expanded  to  a 
small  cloud  with  a  diameter  of  about  30  feet,  looked 
like  a  thick,  dirty  yellow  smoke.  The  odour  of  it 
was  horrible  and  peculiar  and  very  pungent;  and  it 
seemed  to  be  a  very  heavy  vapour,  for  it  never  rose 
high  above  the  ground  —  not  more  than  20  feet.  It 
dispersed  slowly.  In  my  opinion  the  best  way  to 
avoid  it  would  be  to  rush  rapidly  through  it  towards 
the  point  from  which  it  had  been  discharged.  Doubt- 
less some  of  it  lurks  in  the  air;  but  not  sufficient,  I 
think,  to  have  deleterious  effects.  The  bulk  of  it 
rolls  on  in  a  low,  dense  cloud.  That  which  was  shot 
at  us  came  from  percussion  shells,  which  do  not  ex- 
plode in  the  air.  These  projectiles  were  usually  fired 
at  us  in  salvoes ;  so  as  to  form  a  cloud  of  gas  on  the 
ground. 

I  went  to  see  the  bodies  of  two  men  who  had  been 
killed  by  one  of  these  poison-shells.  They  looked 
as  if  they  had  been  rolled  in  flour  of  sulphur,  being 
completely  covered,  flesh  and  clothes,  with  a  yellow- 


RECONNAISSANCE  AND  TRENCH  FIGHTING       257 

ish  deposit.  Some  wounded  men,  and  others  wlio 
had  first  gone  to  their  assistance,  were  similarly  en- 
crusted. Some  of  these  were  insensible ;  others  were 
gasping  for  breath,  and  discharging  froth  from  their 
mouths.  The  two  men  who  were  dead  had  been 
killed  by  pieces  of  shell  and  not  by  the  gas,  though 
this  may  have  helped  to  destroy  them. 

On  the  8th  March  I  was  watching  an  aeroplane 
when  the  petrol  tank  appeared  to  burst.  There  was 
a  puff  of  smoke,  and  then  the  machine  dropped  like 
a  stone.  It  must  have  fallen  a  mile  from  the  spot 
where  I  was  standing :  but  of  its  further  fate  I  know 
nothing.  It  was  a  German  aircraft,  and  was,  I  sup- 
pose, hit  by  a  lucky  Russian  bullet. 

It  is  astonishing  what  a  riddling  these  aeroplanes 
will  stand.  I  have  seen  them  with  from  forty  to 
sixty  bullet  holes  in  different  parts  of  them,  and  yet 
they  were  not  forced  to  come  down  by  their  injuries 
of  this  character. 

Between  the  8th  and  the  14th  March  I  saw  more 
aircraft  of  various  kinds  than  at  any  other  time  dur- 
ing the  period  I  was  with  the  Eussian  Army.  On  the 
9th  six  of  ours  hovered  over  the  German  positions 
for  a  long  time,  and  dropped  many  bombs.  A  tre- 
mendous fire  was  opened  upon  them  by  the  enemy, 
but  not  one  of  them  was  seriously  damaged. 

During  the  first  fortnight  in  March  we  were  moved 
very  gradually  towards  Ostrolenka.  On  the  14th 
we  were  at  Eoshan  on  the  ]^arew,  which  is  here  a 
small  river  with  fords  in  the  neighbourhood.  It  had 
been  frozen  over;  but  the  troops  had  broken  up  the 


258      AN  ENGLISHMAN  IN  THE  RUSSIAN  RANKS 

ice  for  defensive  purposes,  as  they  had  on  many 
other  streams.     It  was  also  beginning  to  thaw. 

Enoromus  numbers  of  Germans,  fresh  troops,  were 
assembling  in  front  of  Ostrolenka  and  Lomza;  and, 
according  to  reports,  on  a  line  extending  400  versts 
north  and  west  of  these  places.  It  was  evidently  the 
prelude  to  a  renewed  attempt  on  Warsaw. 

The  persistence  of  the  enemy  to  take  the  old  capital 
of  Poland  is  a  parallel  to  his  perseverance  in  the 
endeavour  to  break  through  to  Calais  in  the  Western 
area  of  the  war.  Will  he  do  it  ?  He  has  been  within 
a  very  few  versts  of  the  place,  and  made  repeated 
efforts  to  gain  his  object;  but  so  far  the  Russians 
have  been  able  to  beat  him  back. 

The  capture  of  Warsaw  by  the  enemy  would  be  a 
great  calamity  to  the  Russians,  and  have  an  im- 
mensely depreciatory  moral  effect  on  her  troops, 
scarcely  less  so  than  the  fall  of  Petrograd  would  have. 
Some  critics  have,  I  fear,  attempted  to  show  that  the 
capture  of  Warsaw  would  not  be  so  very  heavy  a 
blow  to  the  Russians.  These  persons  do  not  know 
much  about  it,  I  think.  Warsaw  is  the  chief  railway 
centre  in  Poland,  and  a  place  of  immense  commer- 
cial importance.  It  is  really  the  Russian  headquar- 
ters, which,  if  it  falls  into  German  hands,  will  have 
to  be  removed  to  Bialystok,  or  even  Vilna,  and  will 
compel  a  complete  change  of  the  Russian  front. 

Gn  the  day  we  arrived  at  Roshan,  Captain  Saw- 
mine,  who  had  been  compelled  to  go  to  hospital, 
rejoined  us;  and  also  a  number  of  reserves,  and 
others,  came  up,  bringing  the  division  to  a  strength 


RECONNAISSANCE  AND  TRENCH  FIGHTING      259 

of  6,000  infantry.  About  500  Cossacks,  and  two 
batteries  of  field-guns  were  also  attached  to  us,  mak- 
ing the  total  strength  a  little  under  7,000  men. 

I  had  some  thought  of  going  into  hospital  myself, 
as  my  feet  were  badly  frostbitten ;  and  I  was  gener- 
ally much  run  down  by  the  hardships  I  had  under- 
gone ;  but  the  prospect  of  a  big  fight  was  a  pleasure  I 
could  not  forego.  So  I  patched  up  my  hurts  as  well 
as  I  could,  and  got  as  much  rest  as  possible.  If  I 
could  have  obtained  a  horse!  I  was  in  very  low 
water  in  all  ways.  My  English  sovereigns  had  gone 
one  at  a  time,  and  very  few  of  them  were  now  left : 
so  few  of  them  that  it  was  becoming  an  anxiety  to  me 
to  know  how  I  should  get  on  in  future,  and  finally 
leave  the  country. 

The  big  fight  did  not  come  off  very  quickly,  at  least 
in  our  neighbourhood.  We  heard  so  many  reports  of 
the  great  things  taking  place  in  other  districts  that 
I  began  to  think  it  was  about  time  the  German  Army 
was  smashed  up.  The  resources  of  the  Teutonic 
countries,  which  I  had  always  thought  to  be  poor, 
must  be  enormous ;  and  it  seems  to  be  no  vain  boast 
of  the  Kaiser's  that  he  could  "  lose  3,500  men  per 
day,  and  still  keep  up  the  numbers  of  my  army  corps." 

As  I  heard  that  there  was  daily  fighting  taking 
place  near  Przasnysz,  distant  forty  versts  from  Ro- 
shan,  I  obtained  leave  to  make  a  reconnaissance  in 
that  direction,  and  got  Sawmine  to  borrow  a  horse  for 
me  from  one  of  his  brother  ofiicers.  The  animal  I 
thus  obtained  the  loan  of  was  not  a  very  manageable 
creature.     It  had  notions  of  its  own,  which  I  com- 


260       AN  ENGLISHMAN  IN  THE  RUSSIAN  RANKS 

bated  -with  difficulty;  and  I  foresaw  that  if  I  ran 
against  any  of  those  particularly  smart  gentlemen, 
the  Uhlans,  I  should  probably  taste  the  sweets  of  a 
German  prison  —  or  worse. 

However,  my  steed  improved  on  acquaintance- 
ship; and  when  he  discovered  that  I  intended  to  be 
master  —  if  I  could  —  he  gave  in,  and  behaved  him- 
self fairly  well ;  but  I  could  get  no  great  pace  out  of 
him.  He  had  been  a  bat  horse,  not  a  charger;  and 
could  not  forget  his  low  breeding. 

I  made  for  Makow  first,  and  arrived  there  in  about 
three  hours.  There  was  no  direct  road  that  I  could 
discover,  and  the  country  did  not  seem  to  have  suf- 
fered so  much  as  most  districts  round  about.  There 
were  many  people  in  many  of  the  cottages  and  farms 
who  came  out  to  look  at  me,  and  I  even  succeeded  in 
procuring  a  little  milk  and  some  eggs ;  but  my  inabil- 
ity to  speak  more  than  a  few  words  puzzled  the  good 
peasants,  and  evidently  aroused  the  suspicion  of  some 
of  them.  For  by-and-by  a  patrol  of  Cossacks  came 
galloping  up  to  me,  with  very  fierce  expressions  and 
words. 

I  had  taken  the  precaution  to  obtain  a  permit,  with 
a  description  of  me  written  upon  it;  and  also  an  ex- 
planatory note  from  Captain  Savnnine.  I  suppose 
this  kind  gentleman  had  written  something  eulogistic 
concerning  me,  for  the  Cossacks  could  not  make 
enough  of  me,  and  I  was  given  as  much  food  and 
vodka  as  I  could  carry ;  the  provisions  including  cold 
boiled  bacon,  mutton  fat,  chicken  and  the  local  cheese, 
besides  rye,  or  barley  bread,  and  a  quantity  of  cloth- 


RECONNAISSANCE  AND  TRENCH  FIGHTING      2S1 

ing,  whicli,  tliougli  clearly  enough  plunder,  was  not 
German.  Probably  the  Cossacks,  who  are  born  with- 
out consciences  and  morals,  had  obtained  these  ar- 
ticles from  abandoned  houses.  I  was  sadly  in  need 
of  all  they  gave  me,  and  in  no  mood  to  be  too  par- 
ticular, and  by  the  end  of  that  day  I  was  better 
clothed  and  better  fed  than  I  had  been  for  many 
long  weeks. 

I  made  these  men  understand  where  I  wished  to 
go;  ajid  Makow  seemed  to  be  their  destination  also. 
At  any  rate  they  accompanied  me  thither,  and  intro- 
duced me  to  the  commander  of  their  sotnia,  who  was 
as  kind  and  affable  as  his  men,  and  took  me  to  the 
inn  where  he  and  another  officer  was  quartered,  and 
gave  me  excellent  entertainment,  apparently  without 
cost  to  anybody  but  the  host  of  the  inn,  who  seemed 
to  be  willing  enough  to  supply  all  our  needs. 

There  did  not  appear  to  be  more  than  half  a  sotnia 
of  Cossacks  in  the  town,  which  is  a  similar  place  to 
Roshan  —  places  which  in  England,  we  should  call 
small  market  towns  with  a  prominent  agricultural 
interest. 

There  had  been  hostile  visits  to  Makow;  houses, 
and,  in  one  part,  nearly  an  entire  street,  had  been 
demolished  by  artillery  fire.  Some  of  the  poor  peo- 
ple were  living  in  the  partly  exposed  cellars ;  for  an 
underground  apartment,  or  cellar,  is  almost  invar- 
iably found  in  Polish  and  Russian  dwellings,  no 
matter  how  small  and  poor  they  may  be. 

Fighting  was  going  on  not  far  off;  for  the  occa- 
sional booming  of  guns  and  an  almost  incessant  rattle 


262       AN  ENGLISHMAN  IN  THE  RUSSIAN  RANKS 

of  rifle-fire  could  be  plainly  heard  until  darkness 
set  in  when  these  sounds  gradually  ceased.  Przas- 
nysz  is  only  twenty-two  versts  from  Makow;  and  I 
began  to  suspect  that  the  larger  place  was  in  the  hands 
of  the  Germans.  It  is  pronounced  "  Prer-zhast- 
nitz,"  as  nearly  as  I  can  frame  it :  and  I  may  say  that, 
in  the  course  of  this  narrative,  I  have  followed  the 
spelling  of  names  as  they  appear  on  maps,  when  I 
could  find  them  there :  otherwise  I  have  written  them 
as  they  seem  to  be  pronounced;  hence  I  dare  say  I 
have  fallen  into  some  eccentricities  in  this  matter, 
which,  I  hope,  will  be  excused. 

Tired  out,  and  far  from  well,  I  slept  till  late  the 
next  day,  my  breakfast  being  brought  to  bed  to  me 
by  a  woman  of  the  house,  the  usual  custom  of  the 
country. 

In  the  afternoon  I  rode  out  and  took  what  I  sup- 
posed was  the  road  to  Przasnysz ;  but  the  ground  was 
still  so  deeply  covered  with  snow  that  there  were  no 
beaten  tracks  visible.  However,  the  firing  which 
was  still  going  on  was  a  good  guide,  and  after  riding 
about  eight  versts  I  came  on  a  line  of  trenches  occu- 
pied by  Russian  riflemen. 

Two  bullets  came  unpleasantly  near  me,  and  one 
actually  went  under  my  arm,  tearing  the  breast  of 
my  coat.  I  had  not  realized  that  I  was  in  full  sight 
of  the  enemy ;  but  I  was  not  long  in  remedying  that. 
I  rode  straight  into  a  scarped  ditch  and  dismounted. 
The  position  was  not  a  safe  or  pleasant  one ;  but  there 
was  no  help  for  it.  I  had  to  remain  there  until  dusk ; 
and  from  time  to  time  bullets  fell  close  to  me.     I 


RECONNAISSANCE  AND  TRENCH  FIGHTING      263 

think  the  enemy  could  see  part  of  the  head  of  my 
horse,  which  was  a  guide  to  their  aiming,  and  it 
was  only  the  slope  of  the  bank  which  saved  me. 

There  was  an  ammunition  hand-cart,  half  full  of 
packages  of  catridges,  in  the  ditch,  but  nobody  came 
near  it  before  nightfall.  The  riflemen  continued 
their  firing  as  long  as  they  could  see,  and  the  enemy 
replied  without  intermission ;  apparently  with  small 
results  on  either  side.  There  was  big  gun  shooting 
as  well;  but  the  cannon  were  so  well  hidden  that  I 
could  not  locate  them.  Sometimes  shells  came 
screaming  a  few  feet  only  above  the  trench,  and  burst 
just  behind.  One  piece  flew  back  and  buried  itself 
in  the  bank  not  more  than  a  foot  above  the  horse's 
back,  and  close  enough  to  my  head  to  make  me  wince. 
More  often  the  shells  burst  high  in  the  air,  the  Ger- 
mans showing  some  very  bad  gunnery.  The  Rus- 
sian soldiers,  like  soldiers  and  boys  all  the  world 
over  where  snow  is  to  be  found,  had  amused  them- 
selves by  making  snow  figures  in  rear  of  the  trench, 
mostly  those  of  the  Emperors,  Saints  and  Generals. 
A  shot  struck  one  of  these  and  threw  the  well-beaten, 
frozen  snow  to  an  immense  height  in  the  air.  The 
shell  did  not  burst,  a  circumstance  of  frequent  occur- 
rence, which  seemed  to  show  that  the  fuses  were  badly 
made,  or  fitted  badly  to  the  projectile. 

When  the  riflemen  at  last  came  out  of  the  trench 
for  a  fresh  supply  of  ammunition,  they  were  amazed 
to  find  me  and  my  horse  standing  by  their  cart. 
They  at  first  mistook  me  for  an  officer  and  saluted 
very  respectfully;  but  my  awkward  replies  to  their 


264      AN  ENGLISHMAN  IN  THE  RUSSIAN  RANKS 

salutations  caused  them  to  raise  their  lantern  and 
examine  me  more  closely.  Then  I  was  seized,  and  an 
officer  began  to  interrogate  me,  and  I  produced  my 
papers;  but  the  officer  was  not  so  easily  satisfied  as 
my  Cossack  friends;  and  I  was  taken  to  the  trench, 
and  thrust  into  what  the  British  call  a  "  funk-hole," 
or  small  excavated  resting-place.  My  belongings 
were  overhauled,  and  the  supply  of  food  received 
from  the  Cossacks  at  once  appropriated  by  the  sol- 
diers, who  seemed  to  be  very  hungry.  They  were 
good  enough  to  give  me  some  of  the  tallow,  and  a 
piece  of  fat  bacon.  Fortunately  I  am  as  fond  of 
grease  as  any  Russian,  and  I  fortified  myself  for  what 
might  happen  by  making  a  plentiful  meal:  indeed, 
I  ate  all  they  gave  me,  and  drank  a  full  measure  of 
vodka  on  top  of  it.  Bad  things  are  good  things  un- 
der adverse  circumstances. 

The  men  had  bales  of  straw  in  the  trenches,  and 
on  them  they  stretched  themselves  to  sleep  —  at  least 
those  close  to  me  did  so;  but  it  was  too  dark  to  see 
much.  I  obtained  some  of  the  straw,  and  slept  very 
soundly  in  my  "  funk-hole,"  though  I  had  a  suspicion 
that  I  might  have  very  good  cause  to  funk  in  the 
morning. 

The  soldiers  were  not  unkind,  whatever  they 
thought  of  me.  One  of  them  awoke  me  in  the  morn- 
ing by  pulling  me  out  of  my  hole  by  the  legs.  I 
thought  this  was  a  preliminary  to  shooting  or  hang- 
ing, but  nothing  so  drastic  happened.  I  was  given  a, 
pint  of  strong  tea  without  sugar  and  milk,  but  it  was 
hot,  and  that  was  a  great  deal  on  a  bitterly  cold 


RECONNAISSANCE  AND  TRENCH  FIGHTING      265 

morning.  With  the  tea  I  received  a  piece  of  the 
dirtiest  bread  I  have  ever  eaten;  and  shortly  after- 
v^^ards  a  gun  boomed  from  the  enemy's  position,  and  a 
shell  fell  in  the  advanced  trenches.  As  it  caused  no 
commotion  I  suppose  it  did  no  harm.  It  gave  the 
signal  that  it  was  getting  light  enough  for  the  enemy 
to  see;  and  our  men  stood  to  their  arms;  and  soon 
afterwards  began  to  "  snipe,"  as  the  modern  phrase 
has  it. 

Sometimes  I  took  a  peep  along  the  little  gutter-like 
cuts  where  the  men  rested  their  rifles  when  shooting 
over  the  edge  of  the  trench.  I  did  this  with  impunity 
so  frequently  that  I  grew  bold,  until  a  bullet  came 
and  knocked  the  snow  and  dirt  over  me.  A  few 
minutes  later  a  rifleman  was  aiming  along  this  very 
cut  when  a  bullet  struck  his  head  and  killed  him  in- 
stantly. It  entered  in  the  centre  of  his  forehead,  and 
came  out  behind,  carrying  away  a  large  piece  of  the 
skull  and  letting  his  brains  out.  I  was  becoming 
used  to  such  painful  sights;  and  in  two  moments  I 
had  his  rifle  in  hand  and  his  pouch  strapped  round 
me,  and  was  watching  at  the  death-cut  to  avenge  his 
fall. 

I  had  brought  my  own  rifle  with  me ;  but  this  and 
my  cartridges  were  taken  from  me  the  previous  night. 
My  revolver  was  concealed  in  a  pocket,  and  I  thought 
it  wise  to  keep  it  there  for  the  present. 

I  could  not  see  much  to  shoot  at.  Some  of  the 
enemy's  trenches  were  a  long  way  back;  others,  sa- 
lient points,  ran  up  to  within  fifty  yards  of  our  posi- 
tion.    Occasionally  I  saw  the  spike  of  a  helmet ;  but 


266       AN  ENGLISHMAN  IN  THE  RUSSIAN  RANKS 

it  generally  disappeared  before  I  could  bring  the 
sight  of  the  rifle  to  bear  upon  it. 

The  Germans  usually  wore  their  spiked  helmets, 
jocosely  called  "  Pickelhaubes,"  which  much  betrayed 
them  when  aiming  from  the  trenches.  Afterwards 
they  became  more  cunning  and  wore  their  muffin- 
shaped  caps  when  on  duty  of  a  dangerous  character. 

If  I  could  not  see  the  enemy  they  appeared  to  see 
me;  for  several  bullets  came  unpleasantly  close,  and 
another  man  at  my  side  was  struck  and  badly 
wounded  in  the  head.  Then  my  chance  came.  I 
saw  the  spike  of  a  helmet  and  about  an  inch  of  the 
top  of  it.  It  remained  so  still  that  I  concluded  the 
man  was  taking  careful  aim,  an  example  which  I 
followed,  and  fired.  I  saw  the  dirt  fly  up  where  the 
bullet  struck  the  parapet,  and  the  spike  disappeared. 
I  do  not  know  if  the  bullet  found  its  billet  —  prob- 
ably not;  I  fired  about  twenty  rounds  at  similar 
marks,  sometimes  seeing  just  the  top  of  a  spike,  some- 
times nearly  the  whole  helmet;  and  then,  turning 
rather  quickly,  I  saw  the  officer  who  had  arrested  me 
the  previous  night  watching  me.  He  nodded  ap- 
proval ;  and  I  felt  that  I  had  "  saved  my  bacon  "  if 
nothing  else;  and  so  it  proved.  I  was  no  longer 
treated  as  a  prisoner,  and  had  evidently  won  the  re- 
spect and  goodwill  of  those  who  had  witnessed  my 
endeavours  to  trouble  the  enemy. 

It  seemed  to  me  a  rule  that  nobody  should  leave 
the  trench  until  night  came  round;  but  several  pas- 
sages were  cut  to  the  rear  which  permitted  the  sol- 
diers to  come  or  go  vrithout  exposing  themselves  to 


RECONNAISSANCE  AND  TRENCH  FIGHTING      267 

the  enemy's  fire.  I  did  not  attempt  to  go  out  myself 
until  dusk,  and  then  it  came  quite  as  a  shock  to  find 
my  horse  gone.  I  searched  all  round,  but  there  was 
not  a  sign  of  him  anywhere;  and  I  thought  I  heard 
some  of  the  soldiers  laughing.  It  was  in  vain  to 
make  inquiries:  nobody  could  understand  what  I 
said,  though  they  knew  very  well  what  I  wanted. 
For  there  is  a  universal  language  which  all  under- 
stand. All  the  pretty  girls,  from  pole  to  pole,  know 
how  to  spell  "  kiss,"  and  to  let  you  know  what  they 
mean  by  it. 

Soldiers,  of  all  people,  must  not  cry  over  spilt  milk, 
so  I  sat  down  and  greased  my  frostbites;  while  a 
friendly  corporal  brought  me  another  drink  of  vodka. 
For  whatever  the  edicts  of  the  Czar,  this  fiery  liquor 
was  always  plentiful  enough  amongst  the  soldiers  and 
the  peasants,  from  whom,  I  suppose,  the  military 
obtained  it.  Whatever  its  vices  it  has  some  virtues, 
and  is  not  bad  stuff  to  give  to  a  man  who  is  frozen 
inside  and  out. 

The  next  morning  I  found  my  rifle  and  bandolier 
resting  against  the  side  of  the  trench  at  the  aiming- 
cut  I  had  used  the  previous  day.  I  quite  understood 
the  hint ;  and  after  my  pint  of  hot  tea  and  hunk  of 
dirty  bread,  I  again  joined  in  the  sniping,  potting  at 
Pichelhauhes  and  arms  and  legs,  when  I  got  a  chance. 
The  enemy  returned  our  compliments ;  and  the  num- 
ber of  narrow  escapes  our  men  had  was  extraordi- 
nary; but  very  few  of  them  were  killed  or  injured, 
and  I  suppose  our  fire  was  equally  ineffectual.  Field 
artillery  was  also  used  on  both  sides;  and  this  did 


268       AN  ENGLISHMAN  IN  THE  RUSSIAN  RANKS 

more  damage,  chiefly  to  the  trenches,  which  were 
blown  in  at  many  points,  though,  as  usual,  with  but 
little  loss  of  life. 

I  think  more  lives  are  lost  in  trenches  through 
carelessness  than  from  any  other  cause.  One  gets 
so  used  to  the  eternal  potting  that  in  time  he  hardly 
notices  it.  Then  some  unlucky  day  he  forgets  him- 
self, and  shows  enough  of  his  precious  person  to 
bury  a  bullet  in.  The  result  is  death,  or  injury,  ac- 
cording to  where  the  projectile  strikes  him;  for  most 
of  the  men  in  the  advanced  trenches,  on  both  sides, 
are  picked  marksmen,  who  are  ever  on  the  alert  to 
distinguish  themselves.  They  make  a  good  many 
bets,  too,  on  the  results  of  their  shots.  This  is  done 
more  to  relieve  the  monotony  of  the  duty  than  from 
hardness  of  heart,  I  think.  It  is  very  trying  to  spend 
day  after  day  in  taking  chance  shots,  the  results  of 
which  are  seldom  perceptible  to  the  shooter. 

I  spent  several  days  in  this  uncongenial  work, 
with  anything  except  benefit  to  my  general  condition. 
The  bottom  of  the  trench  was  wet,  which  did  not 
improve  the  state  of  my  frostbites;  and  the  nights 
were  bitterly  cold,  yet  no  fires  were  allowed. 

I  much  desired  to  return  to  Roshan ;  but  the  officer 
in  charge  of  the  trench  either  did  not,  or  would  not, 
understand  my  wishes,  and  I  was  never  out  of  the 
trench  for  fifteen  consecutive  minutes,  and  never 
more  than  once  in  twenty-four  hours. 


CHAPTEE  XXII 

FEOM    THE   TEENCHES    OF    PRZASNTSZ    TO    THE 
CAMP    OF    MAKOW 

I  WAS  in  a  very  unpleasant  fix.  I  could  not  obtain, 
leave  to  go  back  to  my  old  comrades :  if  I  went  with- 
out permission  I  ran  grave  risk  of  being  considered 
a  spy  or  a  traitor  and  being  treated  as  one.  Life  had 
become  so  very  joyless  and  unpleasant,  that  I  felt  I 
could  quit  it  without  much  regret;  but  I  was  not 
quite  prepared  to  be  sent  out  of  it  with  the  contumely 
due  to  a  spy,  or  dishonourable  man,  to  say  nothing 
of  the  misgivings  I  entertained  concerning  hanging 
or  shooting  by  a  provost's  squad. 

I  wrote  a  letter  or  two,  and  tried  to  get  them  for- 
warded to  Captain  Sa^vmine.  The  trench  officer  (a 
Major,  I  think)  took  the  first  of  these  notes,  and  ex- 
amined it ;  poised  it  at  every  possible  angle ;  turning 
it  this  way  and  that,  and  upside  down ;  and  unable  to 
make  anything  of  it,  put  it  in  his  pocket.  I  hoped  he 
intended  to  send  it  on  to  its  destination:  but  several 
days  elapsed,  and  I  received  no  reply,  so  I  wrote  an- 
other, and  with  a  respectful  salute,  handed  it  to  the 
gentleman.  He  took  it  from  my  hand,  shook  his 
head,  and  tore  it  to  fragments,  which  he  cast  to  the 
wind. 

I  was  not  at  much  trouble  to  conceal  my  annoyance 

2G9 


270       AN  ENGLISHMAN  IN  THE  RUSSIAN  RANKS 

and  contempt  of  this  conduct,  whereupon  he  got  very 
angry ;  and  I  perceived  that  I  should  have  to  be  cau- 
tious how  I  behaved  before  him :  so  I  went  back  to  my 
jncJcelhauhe-snij^ing,  and  thought  the  matter  out. 

That  night  the  enemy  made  an  attack  upon  us,  and 
there  was  some  hand-to-hand  fighting.  It  was  soon 
over,  and  the  Germans  driven  back  to  their  own 
trench,  with  a  loss  of  fifty  or  sixty  men,  and  eight  or 
ten  prisoners.  It  was  rather  a  trifling  affair;  but 
our  people  hankered  after  revenge,  as  I  could  very 
well  see. 

The  second  night  afterwards  we  made  a  counter- 
attack with  about  two  battalions,  not  counting  the 
supports.  The  Germans  evidently  expected  it:  for 
they  had  kept  up  an  almost  incessant  rain  of  shells, 
great  and  small.  Our  guns  had  replied,  and  done 
some  damage.  Particularly,  they  had  cut  away  the 
wire  entanglements  of  the  enemy's  trenches,  and  pre- 
vented him  from  repairing  it. 

The  intervening  space  we  had  to  rush  across  was 
about  fifty  yards ;  but  my  feet  were  now  so  bad  that 
I  could  only  hobble  forward.  The  first  line  that  got 
into  the  trench  made  very  short  work  of  the  foe. 
When  I  dropped  into  it,  the  bottom  was  covered 
with  dead  and  dying  men.  Others  were  rushing 
away  through  tunnelled  traverses ;  but  they  suffered 
very  severely,  and  in  less  than  five  minutes  the  work 
was  in  our  hands. 

The  Germans  made  three  determined  attempts  to 
retake  it,  but  they  all  failed,  with  loss  to  them ;  though 
the  affair  was  on  a  comparatively  small  scale.     At 


TRENCH  OFFICER  AND  MY  LETTERS  271 

last,  about  five  o'clock  in  the  morning,  they  exploded 
two  mines  simultaneouslj.  These  mines  must  have 
been  prepared  beforehand  in  anticipation  of  the  cap- 
ture of  the  salient  of  the  trench,  on  the  faces  of  vs^hich 
they  were  concealed.  They  cost  us  about  twenty 
men,  several  of  whom  were  buried  and  had  to  be  dug 
out.  Unfortunately  they  were  dead  when  recovered, 
as  were  nearly  all  who  happened  to  be  in  the  vicinity 
of  the  explosions. 

Another  mine,  fired  lower  down  the  trench,  in  the 
apparent  belief  that  we  had  reached  the  point,  killed 
some  of  their  own  men,  who  were  crowding  the  spot 
in  a  wild  endeavour  to  escape  from  the  bayonets  of 
our  men. 

The  moral  effect  caused  by  these  explosions  was 
very  great,  and  was,  I  have  no  doubt,  the  reason  the 
Kussian  leaders  decided  to  abandon  the  trench.  The 
men  were  drawn  off  in  the  darkness,  unperceived  by 
the  enemy,  who  continued  to  bombard  the  position 
very  furiously,  and  must  have  wasted  at  least  1,OOQ 
shells,  many  of  which  were  of  much  larger  size  than 
those  used  in  ordinary  field-guns.  They  blew  to 
pieces  a  great  part  of  their  own  salient,  and  did  our 
trenches  a  lot  of  damage.  The  Eussian  losses  in  this 
second  combat  amounted  altogether  to  about  300 
men. 

During  the  fight  I  had  been  an  object  of  particular 
attention  to  a  big  German,  who  made  more  ragged 
my  already  too  dilapidated  coat.  The  saw-back  bay- 
onets of  our  foes  were  very  destructive  to  everything 
they  were  thrust  through  —  coats  as  well  as  bodies.. 


272       AN  ENGLISHMAN  IN  THE  RUSSIAN  RANKS 

The  gentleman  I  refer  to  had  a  bundle  in  a  handker- 
chief attached  to  his  belt.  This  I  brought  away,  and 
found  it  to  contain  a  small  but  choice  assortment  of 
viands.  There  were  several  Frankfort  sausages  of 
the  genuine  kind,  a  very  toothsome  pasty,  and  some 
bread  that  was  a  degree  or  two  better  than  the  ordi- 
nary "  ammunition  "  sort.  A  touch  of  pathos  was 
given  to  a  commonplace  incident  by  a  letter,  and  the 
photograph  of  a  pretty  woman,  which  the  bundle 
contained.  This  was  probably  the  man's  sweetheart, 
who  had  sent  him  a  few  choice  snacks.  Poor  girl ! 
If  only  she  had  known  who  was  destined  to  devour 
them  I  expect  she  would  have  sung  "  Gott  straffe  Eng- 
land "  in  a  very  high  key.  The  Fortunes  of  war  are 
sometimes  curious. 

The  starving  (?)  Germans  seemed  to  be  pretty  well 
provided  in  this  trench.  Many  of  our  men  brought 
back  dainties  —  sausages,  cakes,  pies  and  even  eggs, 
which  reached  our  own  trenches  uncracked;  and 
plenty  of  tobacco.  The  "  War  Lord  "  is  a  slyer  dog 
than  many  people  think,  and  it  looks  as  if  he  did  not 
forget  the  commissariat  when  furnishing  the  other 
"  War  Departments."  It  may  have  happened,  how- 
ever, that  the  detachment  manning  this  trench  had 
just  received  a  consignment  of  good  things  from  their 
friends. 

The  day  after  the  trench  fights  there  was  great  re- 
joicing in  our  lines,  which  I  had  no  difficulty  in  as- 
certaining was  caused  by  the  fall  of  Przemysl.  Af- 
ter months  of  effort  this  great  fortress  was  taken  by 
the  Russians.     I  know  nothing  of  the  fighting  on 


EFFECTS  OF  EXPLODED  TRENCH  MINES       273 

the  Austrian  frontier,  or  within  her  territories,  but 
what  I  heard  from  time  to  time;  and  this  I  do  not 
repeat.  But  I  may  say  that  the  capture  of  the  place 
had  an  immensely  cheering  effect  on  the  Russian 
troops,  and  did  the  Germans  more  harm,  from  a  moral 
point,  than  the  loss  of  a  battle  would  have  done. 

I  had  hoped  to  have  found  an  opportunity  to  escape 
during  the  operations  mentioned  above ;  but  I  found 
it  impossible  to  go  off  except  under  circumstances 
that  could  only  be  called  desertion.  A  day  or  two 
after  the  fighting  a  couple  of  Cossacks  came,  bear- 
ing a  letter  from  Captain  Sawmine,  and  making  in- 
quiries about  me.  Their  arrival  gave  me  joy  of  soul 
in  no  uncertain  measure :  for  I  was  heartily  tired  of 
trench  warfare. 

The  letter,  written  in  French,  enclosed  a  request 
that  any  officer  or  person  being  shown  it  would  do 
his  utmost  to  forward  my  return  to  the  battalion, 
which,  it  was  stated,  was  now  moving  on  Kulaki,  de- 
scribed as  a  town  east  of  Przasnysz.  The  letter  in- 
structed me,  if  found,  to  accompany  the  two  Cossacks, 
who  had  orders  not  to  leave  me  until  I  was  in  safety 
again  with  the  battalion. 

It  was  afternoon  when  the  Cossacks  arrived,  and  it 
was  decided  that  they  should  rest  in  rear  of  the 
trenches  before  departing  the  next  morning.  It 
seemed  to  me  to  be  one  of  the  longest  nights  I  had 
ever  spent,  I  was  so  anxious  to  get  back  to  my  old 
comrades.  This  anxiety  was  provoked  by  the  ter- 
rible monotony,  and  no  less  abominable  dirtiness,  of 
life  in  the  trenches.     The  Russian  soldier,  blessed,  or 


274       AN  ENGLISHMAN  IN  THE  RUSSIAN  RANKS 

otherwise,  with  that  remarkable  patience  which  is 
characteristic  of  all  Asiatics,  and  persons  descended 
from  them,  is  yet  a  great  sufferer  if  he  is  not  regu- 
larly relieved  from  the  trenches  for  rest:  and  it  has 
been  found  necessary  throughout  the  Russian  Army 
to  organize  regular  relays  for  service  in  these  miser- 
able living  gTaves.  This  is  what  they  really  are. 
Soldiers  posted  in  them  are  compelled  to  stand  in 
their  allotted  places:  they  cannot  move  to  the  left 
hand  or  the  right,  nor  change  places  with  a  comrade. 
If  a  man  is  wounded  during  the  day  it  is  seldom  pos- 
sible to  remove  him  until  darkness  sets  in,  for  the 
Germans  fire  on  anybody  —  Red  Cross  workers,  the 
wounded,  and  the  dying.  So  the  injured  man  is 
taken  into  a  funk-hole,  where  the  surgeon  and  the  Red 
Cross  man  do  what  they  can  for  him  until  it  is  safe 
to  lift  him  out  and  convey  him  to  hospital. 

Those  killed  outright  lie  where  they  fall,  in  the 
mire  and  the  filth,  trodden  under  foot,  unless  a  lull 
in  the  firing  gives  time  to  bury  them  in  the  bottom  of 
the  trench ;  and  even  this  is  only  done  to  get  the  body 
out  of  the  way.  As  a  rule  the  dead  were  buried  at 
night,  at  the  rear  of  the  trench  and  close  to  it.  Even 
then  the  Germans  often  heard  the  sound  of  pick  and 
shovel  at  work,  and  in  their  usual  dastardly  way 
opened  fire  on  the  fatigue-parties  engaged  in  this 
necessary  and  charitable  work,  leaving  it  to  chance 
whether  or  not  they  killed  a  man  or  two,  as  they  often 
did. 

I  have  mentioned  the  patience  of  the  Russian  na- 
ture.    It  is  in  curious  contrast  to  the  petulance  and 


MISERIES  OF  TRENCH  LIFE  275 

cowardice  of  the  Germans,  who  yell  and  scream  when 
in  danger  or  suffering  much  pain.  The  Russian 
never  does  this.  Even  the  dying  Muscovite  scarcely 
groans.  I  have  seen  men  brought  out  of  the  trenches, 
or  from  the  front,  practically  smashed,  hurt  beyond 
the  wildest  hope  of  recovery,  yet  calm  and  patient, 
and  grateful  for  the  least  help,  not  one  sound  of  com- 
plaint or  pain  passing  their  brave  lips.  Even  those 
rascals  the  Cossacks  invariably  met  suffering  and 
death  with  the  invincible  courage  of  heroes.  I  never 
saw  an  exception. 

At  daybreak  the  following  morning  we  started  for 
Kulaki,  taking  a  route  through  country  that  was 
quite  unknown  to  me. 

At  this  time  thaws  had  set  in,  generally  com- 
mencing about  11  a.m.  and  continuing  until  2  p.m. 
They  rendered  the  ground  very  bad  for  travelling,  al- 
though the  snow  was  far  from  being  melted  through, 
except  in  a  few  places,  which  had  been  partially 
cleared  by  drifts  before  the  frost  had  come.  Large 
pools  of  water  collected,  and  stood  on  the  hard  snow, 
which  was  really  ice,  rendering  the  surface  not  only 
slushy,  but  exceedingly  slippery.  The  Cossacks 
partly  remedied  this  by  tying  pieces  of  raw  hide  over 
the  horses'  hoofs;  but  nothing  could  render  the  foot- 
ing of  the  animals  quite  safe,  and  we  had  one  or 
two  nasty  falls.  These  generally  happened  towards 
the  close  of  day,  when  the  temperature  was  fall- 
ing and  the  freezing  was  sharper  than  ever,  or  at 
all  events  the  surface  of  the  snow  seemed  to  be  more 
glassy. 


276       AN  ENGLISHMAN  IN  THE  RUSSIAN  RANKS 

We  liad  not  got  more  than  a  dozen  versts  on  our 
way  when  we  came  up  to  half  a  battalion  of  the  30th 
Siberian  regiment,  which  was  skirmishing  with  a 
much  stronger  body  of  German  infantry,  which  had 
tried  to  dig  itself  in  —  i.e.,  entrench  itself  under  fire. 
This  the  Russians  had  prevented,  and  they  suddenly 
made  a  determined  bayonet  charge  and  closed  with 
their  foes. 

The  two  Cossacks  and  I  followed  close  behind; 
and  in  the  melee  which  ensued  one  of  the  men  speared 
a  German  running  him  completely  through  from  side 
to  side,  at  least  a  foot  of  steel  coming  out  under  the 
victim's  left  arm.  The  fighting,  though  it  hardly 
lasted  two  minutes,  was  very  fierce,  the  Germans 
seeming  to  realize  that  they  had  no  alternative  but 
to  fight  or  surrender  in  a  body,  in  spite  of  their  ex- 
cess of  numbers.  This  is  really  what  happened. 
The  Russians  killed  about  150  of  them,  with  a  loss 
to  themselves  of  not  more  than  sixty.  The  remainder 
of  the  Germans,  about  600  in  number,  surrendered 
unconditionally,  and  were  marched  away  in  an  east- 
erly direction,  the  dead  and  wounded  being  left  ly- 
ing on  the  snow.  I  presume  they  were  attended  to 
later  by  the  Red  Cross  men  and  removed  to  the  field- 
hospitals. 

Unfortunately  I  could  not  make  myself  distinctly 
understood  by  the  Cossacks;  and  my  two  guides, 
after  a  consultation  together,  seemed  to  make  up 
their  minds  to  partly  retrace  their  steps.  They  may 
have  had  good  grounds  for  this  resolution ;  and  I  my- 
self strongly  suspected  that  numerous  small  parties 


A  NIGHT  IN  A  POLISH  COTTAGE  277 

of  the  enemy  were  prowling  about.  The  reason  for 
this  opinion  was  that  I  saw  several  patrols  or  squads 
join  the  enemy's  battalion  during  the  fight.  We  also 
passed  a  small  wood,  amongst  the  trees  of  which  a 
dozen  bivouac  fires  were  still  smouldering,  and  these, 
I  saw  at  a  glance,  were  not  made  by  Russian  soldiers. 
I  likewise  saw  a  single  horseman  watching  us ;  he  was 
soon  joined  by  another ;  and  the  two  followed  us  some 
distance,  until  one  of  the  Cossacks  fired  his  rifle  at 
them,  when  they  galloped  away. 

But  my  escort  was  decidedly  nervous.  They  were 
both  young  men  —  under  twenty-five,  I  thought  — 
and  appeared  to  consider  me  something  of  a  prisoner. 
I  was  surprised  at  this;  but  not  sufficiently  master 
of  the  language  to  protest  or  ask  for  an  explanation. 
The  men  frequently  changed  their  direction,  and  if 
they  did  not  bewilder  themselves,  at  any  rate  fairly 
perplexed  me,  so  that  I  could  not  tell  in  which  di- 
rection we  ought  to  be  travelling. 

We  passed  that  night  in  a  cottage  which  was  but 
little  better  than  a  hut,  the  owner  of  which  did  not 
seem  to  be  much  pleased  at  being  compelled  to  enter- 
tain us,  almost  the  only  occasion  on  which  I  noticed 
such  a  disposition  in  any  person  of  the  country,  what- 
ever his  rank  or  position. 

There  was  hardly  any  food  in  the  house,  and  that 
little  was  coarse  and  dirty-looking,  so  that  even  the 
Cossacks  turned  up  their  noses  at  it.  One  of  them 
went  out,  and  after  an  absence  of  more  than  an  hour 
returned  with  two  fowls,  some  potatoes  and  bread, 
and  a  stone  jar  of  vodka.     They  then  brought  in  a 


278       AN  ENGLISHMAN  IN  THE  RUSSIAN  RANKS 

lot  of  wood  from  the  yard  of  the  cottage,  and  made 
the  stove  nearly  red-hot,  at  which  action  the  proprie- 
tor protested  loudly  and  became  very  angry,  while  a 
woman  I  at  first  thought  was  his  wife  wept.  The 
•fowls  having  been  prepared  by  the  speedy  method  of 
burning  off  the  feathers  were  put  in  a  saucepan  to 
boil.  The  woman  and  I  skinned  some  of  the  pota- 
toes, but  others  were  cooked  with  the  skin  on. 

While  waiting  for  supper  the  vodka  was  very 
liberally  served  out,  the  man  and  woman  taking 
their  share;  and  the  behaviour  of  the  lady  with  one 
of  the  Cossacks  was  such  as  to  convince  me  I  had 
been  mistaken  in  thinking  that  she  was  the  wife  of 
the  peasant. 

By  the  time  the  meal  was  cooked  and  eaten  the 
woman  and  myself  were  the  only  sober  persons  there ; 
and  I  am  not  sure  that  she  had  not  taken  too  much 
of  the  fiery  vodka.  With  the  two  Cossacks  as  part- 
ners she  executed  some  extraordinary  figures  in  what 
I  suppose  I  must  call  a  polka.  It  ended  in  the  whole 
party  falling  to  the  floor,  where  they  went  to  sleep. 

B.eing  left  to  look  after  myself  I  blew  out  the  lamp, 
which  was  smoking  abominably,  and  got  into  a  bed 
at  the  corner  of  the  room  —  clothes,  boots  and  all, 
that  I  might  be  ready  for  eventualities.  Nobody 
disturbed  me,  however,  until  daylight,  when  the  Cos- 
sacks aroused  themselves,  and  the  woman  made  us 
plenty  of  tea,  which  we  drank,  as  usual,  without  sugar 
and  milk. 

The  Cossacks  had  stabled  the  horses  in  an  out- 
house, which  was  quite  unfitted  for  the  purpose. 


A  DEVASTATED  DISTRICT  279 

The  poor  animals  had  very  little  straw,  and,  as  the 
place  was  draughty,  they  must  have  been  very  cold. 

I  have  forgotten  to  mention  that  before  leaving 
the  trenches  the  Cossacks  obtained,  by  either  bor- 
rowing or  begging,  a  horse  on  which  to  mount  me; 
and  this  animal,  though  nothing  to  boast  of,  was  a 
much  better  horse  than  the  one  I  had  lost. 

As  I  saw  the  wisdom  of  propitiating  the  Cossacks, 
I  helped  them  as  much  as  I  could;  and  they  were 
friendly  enough,  though  I  perceived  that  they 
watched  me  pretty  closely. 

While  we  were  engaged  in  saddling  the  horses,  the 
peasant  came  to  the  shed  and  said  something  "to  the 
soldiers  which  caused  them  to  mount  very  hastily. 
They  motioned  to  me  to  do  the  same;  and  as  we 
dashed  at  a  gallop  out  of  the  little  yard  I  saw  about 
twenty  German  hussars  approaching  the  cottage. 
They  perceived  us,  too,  and  gave  a  hot  pursuit,  firing 
their  rifles  at  random.  We  returned  the  fire,  and  I 
saw  one  man  fall  from  his  horse.  This  casualty 
was  suflicient  to  bring  them  to  a  halt,  though  they 
continued  to  shoot  at  us. 

We  got  into  safety  behind  a  clump  of  trees  and 
bushes;  and  one  of  the  Cossacks  dismounted  and 
crept  forward  to  reconnoitre.  I  went  with  him,  and 
searched  the  country  with  my  glass,  which  the  man 
borrowed  by  gesture.  The  hussars  had  not  followed 
us;  and  in  the  direction  of  the  cottage,  which  must 
have  been  three  miles  awav,  I  saw  a  column  of  smoke 
rising  slowly  in  the  calm  air  and  guessed  what  had 
happened.     The  cruel  enemy  was  burning  the  home 


280       AN  ENGLISHMAN  IN  THE  RUSSIAN  RANKS 

of  tlie  peasant  in  which  we  had  passed  the  previous 
night. 

The  Cossacks  continued  to  ride  in  a  north-easterly 
direction  across  a  district  that  appeared  to  be  a  very 
poor  one  at  the  best  of  times.  The  widely  scattered 
cottages  and  huts  were  of  a  mean  description  even 
for  this  land,  and  I  saw  only  two  or  three  houses  that 
could  have  been  occupied  by  persons  in  a  fairly 
well-to-do  condition.  In  the  course  of  a  ride  of  about 
twenty  versts  (say  fifteen  miles,  English  measure- 
ment) we  passed  through  only  three  collections  of 
cottages  which  could  be  called  hamlets.  Two  of 
them  consisted  of  less  than  thirty  hovels,  and  were 
not  half  inhabited. 

The  land  may  have  been  cultivated,  but  was  more 
likely  to  be  grazing-ground :  it  was  covered  with 
snow,  so  one  could  not  tell  its  characteristics.  We 
went  through  an  extensive  wood  of  pine-trees,  and 
smaller  growths  of  timber  were  frequent;  as  also 
scattered  clumps,  and  single  trees,  yet  the  country 
was  distinctly  different  from  an  English  landscape. 

Burnt  homesteads  told  the  enemy's  story  as  plainly 
as  words  could  have  done;  and  bones  that  the  dogs 
were  gnawing  I  am  pretty  sure  were  human.  On  a 
bush  a  German  top-boot  was  stuck,  sole  upwards. 
Perhaps  there  had  been  an  act  of  revenge ;  or  the  in- 
tention of  some  peasant  might  have  been  to  insult, 
and  show  his  contempt  for,  his  country's  enemies  — 
rather  a  dangerous  thing  to  do ;  especially  as  retalia- 
tion would  probably  be,  German  fashion,  inflicted 
on  the  heads  of  the  innocent. 


A  CONFUSED  ESCORT  281 

I  think  there  must  have  previously  been  a  fight 
near  this  spot :  for  I  saw  lots  of  rags  lying  about,  or 
sticking  in  the  bushes;  the  remnants  of  uniforms; 
and  also  some  rotting  straps  that  had  once  been. 
harness. 

From  time  to  time  the  Cossacks  had  conversations 
with  the  few  peasants  we  met,  the  results  of  which 
were  almost  invariably  to  cause  them  to  change  the 
direction  of  our  journey.  I  concluded  that  the 
enemy's  scouts  and  patrols  were  still  prowling  about 
the  neighbourhood.  Finally,  the  Cossacks  turned 
and  rode  southwards  until  late  in  the  day,  when  we 
halted  at  a  roadside  inn,  near  which  there  was  a 
small  church,  and  a  dozen  miserable  cottages.  Here 
we  passed  the  second  night,  the  cheer  being  no  better 
than  that  at  the  peasant's  cottage;  but  during  the 
day  one  of  my  escort  had  captured  an  unfortunate 
duck,  which  was  found  swimming  in  a  hole  broken 
in  the  ice  of  a  pool.  Its  companions  contrived  to 
escape  by  flying;  and  they  were  probably  all  as  lean 
and  skinny  as  the  one  I  can  hardly  say  we  ate  at 
night :  sucked  the  bones,  would  be  the  correct  phrase. 

If  a  picture  suspended  over  the  door  of  the  house 
was  its  sign,  the  name  of  the  inn  was  "  The  Virgin 
and  Child."  There  seemed  to  be  no  vodka  in  this 
hostelry,  as  the  landlord  put  only  a  kind  of  black 
beer  before  the  Cossacks.  They  drank  it  freely 
enough,  but  I  could  not  swallow  it,  the  flavour  was 
so  offensive:  and  I  could  not  prevail  on  the  man  to 
serve  some  tea,  which  we  did  not  get  until  the  next 
morning. 


282       AN  ENGLISHMAN  IN  THE  RUSSIAN  RANKS 

The  beds  were  very  rough,  stuffed  with  straw, 
and  not  clean ;  but  they  seemed  to  be  free  of  vermin. 
I  never  saw  a  flea  in  Poland,  and  the  other  form  of 
bed-pest  was  also  absent;  but  more  offensive  crea- 
tures are  very  prevalent  in  this  country;  and  so  are 
rats  and  mice,  which  often  harbour  in  the  beds,  and 
do  great  harm  to  a  traveller's  clothes  and  belongings. 
They  have  even  gnawed  my  rough  leather  boots  while 
I  slept. 

Again  we  resumed  our  journey  at  daybreak,  still 
riding  south ;  and  I  thought  my  escort  must  have  lost 
their  way.  I  drew  forth  my  papers,  and  pointed  to 
the  letter  I  had  received  from  Captain  Sawmine, 
trying  to  make  them  understand  I  wished  to  rejoin 
him  as  speedily  as  possible;  but  they  only  shook 
their  heads.  They  either  did  not  comprehend,  or 
would  not  forego  their  own  method  of  going  to  work. 

In  the  morning  we  passed  through  a  small  town, 
the  name  of  which  did  not  transpire.  In  the  after- 
noon we  came  up  with  a  patrol  of  Cossacks,  not  be- 
longing to  the  same  regiment  as  my  escort.  My 
two  men  had  a  long  conference  with  the  officer  com- 
manding them,  who  made  me  understand  that  he 
wished  to  examine  my  papers.  I  produced  them; 
but  he  was  evidently  not  a  brilliant  scholar,  and 
those  written  in  French  and  German  he  clearly  did 
not  understand.  He  gave  rather  lengthy  instruc- 
tions to  the  two  Cossacks,  and  appeared  to  order 
them  to  take  a  certain  road,  which  he  pointed  out. 
He  was  very  polite,  as  far  as  a  man  could  be  without 
the  use  of  direct  oral  communication,   offered  me 


THE  CAMP  AT  MAKOW  28S 

cigarettes    (these  things  have  become  universal  in 
use),  and  saluted  when  we  parted. 

From  a  southward  road  we  now  turned  to  an  east- 
ward, and  in  about  an  hour  reached  a  town  which  I 
recognized  as  Makow ;  but  my  guides,  escort,  or  what- 
ever thej  were,  would  not  stop  here.  The  place  was 
full  of  Russian  troops;  and  the  escort  had  several 
conversations  with  officers,  to  whom  I  showed  my 
papers.  They  always  nodded,  and  we  went  on^ 
That  night  I  was  lodged  in  the  field-prison  of  a  com- 
pany of  military  police,  and  I  began  to  fear  that  all 
was  not  quite  as  right  as  I  could  wish  it  to  be.  In 
the  morning  I  was  visited  by  several  officers,  one  of 
whom  was  a  Staff  Officer  who  could  speak  French 
and  several  other  languages,  but  not  English.  I  do 
not  speak  French;  but  I  can  read  and  Mrrite  simple 
sentences  in  that  language,  so  I  could  communicate 
with  him.  He  got  all  he  could  out  of  me,  but  gave 
no  information  himself.  I  asked  to  be  allowed  to 
rejoin  the  corps  in  which  Sawmine  was  serving,  but 
he  said  he  did  not  know  where  it  was.  This  may 
or  may  not  have  been  the  truth.  He  then  asked 
whether,  if  I  were  permitted  to  move  about  the  camp, 
I  would  give  my  parole  not  to  go  without  its  bounds 
without  special  permission.  Prisons  of  any  kind  are 
not  nice  places,  and  rather  than  be  caged  up  I  gave  the 
required  promise,  but  protested  as  well  as  I  could  and 
begged  to  be  allowed  to  do  duty  with  some  regiment  at 
Makow,  if  I  might  not  go  on  to  Kulaki.  I  under- 
stood him  to  say  that  my  request  would  be  considered ;, 
then  he  went  away,  and  I  never  saw  him  again. 


284       AN  ENGLISHMAN  IN  THE  RUSSIAN  RANKS 

I  noticed  that  I  was  carefully  watched ;  and  about 
the  middle  of  the  day  a  policeman  beckoned  to  me, 
and  I  was  taken  to  a  tent  where  a  plentiful,  though 
coarse,  meal  was  given  me.  Again  at  retreat  I  was 
'  fed,  and  lodged  at  night  in  a  tent  belonging  to  the 
'  police  company.  This  sort  of  thing  went  on  for  a 
week,  during  which  no  officer  spoke  to  me,  or  took 
any  notice  of  me,  the  commander  of  the  police  ex- 
cepted. I  was  daily  fed  in  sufficient  quantity,  a  new 
pair  of  boots  and  a  coat  given  to  me ;  but  practically 
I  was  a  watched  prisoner. 

I  was  quite  unable  to  guess  why  I  was  treated  in 
this  way,  nor  can  I  now  give  any  explanation  of  my 
change  of  position,  except  that  the  troops  I  was  now 
with  were  all  strangers  to  me:  I  had  never  met  any 
of  them  before,  and  it  may  have  been  thought  that 
my  papers  were  forgeries,  especially  as  I  could  not 
speak,  read  or  understand  the  Russian  language.  I 
do  not  know  what  troops  these  were,  distinguishing 
marks  being  very  obscure  when  regiments  are  in  the 
field.  I  found  out,  however,  that  the  force  had  only 
recently  arrived  at  the  front  —  consisted  of  what  we 
term  territorial  regiments,  was  destined  to  form  part 
of  the  Twelfth  Army  Corps,  and  comprised  two  in- 
fantry regiments,  numerically  numbered  the  198th 
and  199th.  With  them  were  several  batteries  of  ar- 
tillery, and  a  cavalry  regiment,  the  w^hole  mustering 
10,000  or  11,000  men.  The  cavalry  were  not  Cos- 
sacks, and  I  do  not  know  what  became  of  the  two 
men  who  brought  me  hither. 

On  the  eighth  day  after  my  arrival  in  the  camp  of 


A  RUSSIAN  POLICE  COMMISSARY  285 

Makow  the  force  crossed  the  river  (a  tributary  of  the 
Narew),  and  marched  along  the  Ostrolenka  road  a 
distance  of  fifteen  versts,  when  they  again  encamped, 
and  remained  in  this  position  imtil  the  9th  April, 
daily  drilling  and  manoeuvring,  very  industriously. 
All  this  time  I  lived  the  monotonous,  aimless  life  I 
have  described  above. 

Once  or  twice  I  accosted  officers  who  appeared  to 
be  of  some  rank,  and  showed  my  papers,  striving  to 
make  my  wishes  known.  I  also  wrote  three  times 
to  Captain  Sawmine,  putting  the  letters  in  the  field- 
post;  but  no  reply  reached  me.  I  am  sure  that  offi- 
cer would  have  replied  had  my  letters  reached  him; 
but  his  replies  may  have  been  withheld  from  me.  It 
is  possible,  too,  that  Sawmine  was  killed,  I  do  not 
know,  but  I  have  not  heard  anything  from  or  about 
him  and  my  other  old  friends.  I  would  have  recalled 
my  parole  and  endeavoured  to  have  escaped;  but  I 
could  not  find  anybody  whom  I  could  make  under- 
stand, or  who  did  not  wilfully  ignore  my  wishes. 

The  police  commissary  (a  Captain)  was  apparently 
not  a  bad  sort  of  fellow,  and  treated  me  well.  When 
he  found  he  could  trust  me,  he  did  not  have  me 
watched  with  offensive  closeness ;  and  he  fed  and 
lodged  me  as  well  as  he  could,  and  as  well  as  he  him- 
self fared.  He  much  resembled  a  burly  English 
sergeant,  and  possessed  a  similar  gruff  honesty  of 
tone  and  purpose ;  and  we  used  to  pass  the  time  away 
by  talking  at  each  other  by  the  hour  at  a  time,  though 
neither  understood  a  dozen  words  of  what  was  said. 
He  always  had  cigars  (he  eschewed  cigarettes)  which 


286      AN  ENGLISHMAN  IN  THE  RUSSIAN  RANKS 

lie  generously  shared  with  me ;  and  any  little  luxury 
which  his  men  brought  in  was  sure  to  find  its  way  to 
m.y  plate  —  I  cannot  say  table,  for  this  was  an  article 
of  furniture  I  never  saw;  and  the  platters  were  of 
wood  —  not  a  nice  substance  for  such  a  purpose ;  at 
least  until  dirt  has  become  a  second  nature. 

What  do  I  term  luxuries  ?     Here  is  a  sample : 

Three  of  the  policemen  went  out  one  day  with 
their  rifles.  I  saw  they  were  going  on  a  little  shoot- 
ing expedition,  and  I  took  the  liberty  of  following 
them,  although  they  went  several  versts  beyond  the 
bounds  of  the  camp.  'No  objection  was  raised  to  my 
doing  this;  and  the  men  sometimes  lent  me  a  rifle 
that  I  might  have  a  shot  or  two.  My  own  rifle,  to- 
gether with  everything  I  possessed,  except  the  clothes 
in  which  I  stood,  had  disappeared ;  and  also  the  horse 
on  which  I  had  arrived.  But  that  could  hardly  be 
claimed  as  my  property. 

We  shot  everything  we  could  see  that  could  be  hit 
by  a  bullet,  fowls,  ducks,  geese;  and,  on  this  occa- 
sion, a  fat  porker.  How  fattened  does  not  matter: 
your  true  "  old  soldier "  does  not  trouble  himself 
about  such  trifles  as  the  fattening  of  pigs  in  the  war 
area.  One  of  the  policemen  put  a  bullet  through  its 
head,  and  chuggy  bit  the  dust  without  being  properly 
bled  in  the  orthodox  way.  We  cut  off  its  legs,  its 
shoulders  and  the  thickest  part  of  the  loin ;  and  left 
the  rest  for  the  ravens,  the  dogs  or  piggy's  own  rela- 
tives —  whichever  came  up  first. 

Dogs,  peculiarly  cantankerous  curs,  ravens,  crows 
and  pigs,  were  numerous  in  all  parts  of  Poland  that 


A  RUSSIAN  POLICE  COMMISSARY  287 

I  visited.  I  suppose  the  dogs  and  swine  were  tame 
until  the  war  rendered  them  homeless  and  masterless, 
when  they  became  semi-wild.  By  swine  I  do  not 
mean  wild  boars.  These  last  named  were  found  in 
the  woods  and  forests,  and  may  have  been  originally 
of  the  same  stock  as  the  domestic  animal;  but  they 
are  quite  easily  recognized  as  distinct  now.  There 
are  also  wolves  in  this  region;  and  they  sometimes 
visited  the  battle-fields;  but  I  do  not  think  they  are 
very  numerous. 

While  we  were  dismembering  the  pig  I  noticed  an 
old  long-bearded  stolid-looking  peasant,  closely 
watching  us.  I  believe  he  claimed  to  be  the  owner 
of  the  pig.  At  any  rate  he  was  back  in  camp  before 
we  were,  and  we  found  him  talking  like  a  lawyer  to 
the  provost  and  police  commissary.  Our  three  po- 
licemen also  had  a  great  deal  to  say  —  I  would  have 
given  something  to  know  on  what  subject.  I  do  not 
know  what  was  the  outcome  of  the  confab;  but  we 
had  roast  pork  for  supper  that  night;  and  very  de- 
licious pork  it  was  —  Hun  fed,  or  otherwise.  I  may 
add  that  the  soldiers  were  constantly  on  the  alert  to 
secure  these  stray  pigs,  which  were  very  much  appre- 
ciated as  an  agreeable  addition  to  black  bread  and 
blacker  soup. 

The  weather  had  fairly  broken  now :  the  thaw  had 
set  in  all  over  the  country,  and  the  ground  was  in  a 
dreadful  condition,  and  scarcely  passable  for  troops, 
and  especially  waggons  and  artillery.  In  the  sum- 
mer I  thought  I  had  never  seen  such  dust  as  the  dust 
of  Poland :  in  the  winter  I  knew  I  had  never  known 


288       AN  ENGLISHMAN  IN  THE  RUSSIAN  RANKS 

such  horrible  mud  as  the  mud  of  these  wide  plains. 
To  see  infantry  marching  through  it  was  a  sight  of 
sights.  They  seemed  to  lift  their  knees  to  their  chins 
before  bringing  their  feet  clear  of  it  to  take  a  step 
forward.  The  German  goose-step  was  not  in  it  as 
a  funny  sight. 


CHAPTER  XXIII 

A    RIDE    TOWARDS    OSTEOLENKA 

During  the  time  I  was  in  what  I  suppose  I  may  call 
the  Camp  of  Makow,  the  troops  stationed  there  had  no 
fighting;  and  I  do  not  think  much  went  on  in  the 
neighbourhood,  though  every  day  or  two  I  heard  the 
distant  booming  of  artillery,  and  sometimes  the  rattle 
of  rifle-firing.  These  were  probably  skirmishes  of  no 
great  importance,  such  as  occur  in  every  great  war : 
and  in  this  region  there  was  a  constant  tension  all 
along  the  frontier  line.  The  Germans,  I  think,  were 
continually  pressing,  and  seeking  for  a  weak  spot  in 
the  Russian  defensive ;  and  when  they  thought  they 
had  found  such  a  place,  they  rushed  troops  thither 
by  means  of  their  "  strategic  railways."  It  was  ac- 
tions of  this  kind  that  brought  on  all  the  big  fights 
that  I  witnessed.  Just  at  this  time,  however,  the 
Teutonic  exertions  were  calming  down  a  little.  The 
energetic  enemy  had  slightly  over-exerted  himself, 
and  was  taking  a  fretful  sort  of  rest,  something  like 
that  of  old  Jack  Falstaff  when  his  little  expeditions 
had  not  been  marked  successes.  There  might  be  a 
great  action  any  day  —  a  good  many  days  passed 
without  one  in  the  Przasnysz  district.  Meanwhile  I 
began  to  despair. 

Time  hung  heavily  on  my  hands;  though  I  was 

289 


290       AN  ENGLISHMAN  IN  THE  RUSSIAN  RANKS 

working  hard  to  learn  the  Russian  language,  with 
some  little  success.  I  had  learned  a  good  many 
words  and  a  few  short  and  easy  sentences :  so  that  I 
could  now  make  myself  understood,  and  could  un- 
derstand a  portion  at  least  of  what  was  addressed  to 
me.  I  even  learned  to  say,  "  I  want  to  go  " ;  which 
made  the  men  laugh.  "  Why  am  I  detained  ? " 
which  made  them  laugh  louder. 

However,  the  commissary  at  last  contrived  to  make 
me  understand  that  there  was  nothing  charged  against 
me;  but  that  it  was  necessary  to  make  inquiries. 
When  these  were  completed,  then  —  well,  he  could 
not  say  exactly  what  would  happen  then :  but  he  made 
it  plain  to  me  that  I  had  need  of  patience,  and  an 
acquiescence  in  the  things  that  be :  which,  like  all  wise 
advice,  it  is  something  difficult  to  follow. 

The  interference  with  my  freedom  of  movement 
was  not  the  only  trouble  I  had  to  endure.  I  have 
referred  to  the  circumstance  that  I  suffered  much 
from  frostbites  during  the  winter.  Standing  all  day 
in  dirty  trenches,  where  it  was  impossible  to  observe 
necessary  cleanliness,  did  not  improve  the  condition 
of  my  hurts ;  and  by  the  middle  of  April  I  saw  that 
I  could  not  hope  to  do  much  more  marching  and 
fighting,  on  foot  at  any  rate:  and  I  saw  no  chance 
of  obtaining  a  mount.  I  was  nearly  without  money, 
away  from  home  and  friends:  and  when  I  add  that 
I  am  sixty-four  years  of  age,  perhaps  it  will  not  be 
thought  inexcusable  that  I  began  to  feel  I  could  not 
remain  to  see  the  end  of  a  war  that  may  yet  last  a 
considerable  time.     So  I  got  my  friend  the  police 


A  RIDE  TOWARDS  OSTROLENICA  291 

commissary  to  draw  up  a  petition  to  the  command- 
ing officer  asking  to  be  allowed  to  join  a  Russian  cav- 
alry regiment,  or  go  home  to  England. 

The  commissary,  Captain  Blodshvoshki,  was  not 
in  favour  of  my  petitioning  the  Commander  directly, 
as  he  appeared  to  have  some  misgivings  concerning 
the  irascibility  and  generally  adverse  disposition  of 
that  gentleman;  which,  considering  what  I  had  my- 
self seen  and  heard,  I  thought  were  not  altogether 
without  grounds.  So  a  Staff  Officer,  Colonel  Vil- 
kovski,  who  had  shown  me  some  kindness,  was  ap- 
plied to.  He  said  that  he  had  never  heard  of  a  for- 
eigner being  permitted  to  join  the  Russian  Army 
except  by  express  permission  of  the  Czar;  and  he 
was  much  surprised  to  learn  of  my  experiences  with 
the  Muscovite  forces.  He  promised  to  forward  my 
wishes  as  far  as  it  was  in  his  power  to  do  so. 

It  was  on  the  13th  April  that  this  conversation 
took  place.  On  the  15th  a  surgeon  came  to  my  quar- 
ters and  desired  to  examine  me.  When  he  saw  the 
state  of  my  feet  he  shook  his  head ;  and  I  understood, 
through  Captain  Blodshvoshki,  that  he  had  pro- 
nounced me  "  no  good." 

On  the  18th  a  passport  and  a  railway  voucher  were 
handed  to  me  by  a  police  orderly,  and  I  was  told  to 
go  home;  that  is  the  simplest  way  of  putting  it. 
Arrangements  were  made  for  me  to  leave  the  camp 
the  same  evening.  I  make  no  comment  on  the  seem- 
ingly cool  and  ofF-hand  manner  in  which  I  was  dis- 
missed ;  but  I  resolved  if  ever  again  I  do  any  fighting 
it  shall  be  in  the  ranks  of  the  British  Army.     But 


292       AN  ENGLISHMAN  IN  THE  RUSSIAN  RANKS 

the  resolution  is  superfluous :  it  is  pretty  clear  that  I 
have  ridden  Nature  to  the  last  lap. 

Ostrolenka  was  the  nearest  station  to  the  camp, 
and  I  was  advised  by  Colonel  Vilkovski  to  proceed 
to  Riga  via  Vilna,  and  from  thence  to  obtain  a  ship 
to  England.     The  good  gentleman  shook  hands  with  i 
me,  and  took  his  departure. 

Captain  Blodshvoshki  wished  to  accompany  me, 
but  he  was  not  permitted  to  do  so.  He  also  shook 
hands,  with  the  hearty  warmth  of  a  true  friend.  A 
horse  was  lent  me  to  carry  me  to  Ostrolenka ;  and  a 
police  trooper  accompanied  me  to  take  back  the  horse 
when  I  had  done  with  it. 

Ostrolenka  was  distant  about  twenty-five  versts 
(a  verst  is  1,166  yards),  and  there  was  a  straight  road 
to  it,  though  it  was  in  a  truly  dreadful  state  —  cut 
to  pieces  by  heavy  traffic  and  more  than  knee-deep  in 
tenacious  mud.  Moreover,  we  soon  discovered  that 
it  was  obliterated  in  some  places  by  the  fighting  that 
had  at  one  period  of  the  war  been  very  frequent  over 
it.  Whole  versts  of  it  had  been  torn  up  by  shell  fire 
and  the  passage  of  heavy  guns,  so  that  we  had  to 
make  wide  detours  to  avoid  the  large  mudholes,  which 
were  the  craters  of  shells,  and  some  of  which  con- 
tained six  or  eight  feet  of  water,  drained  from  the 
melting  snow. 

The  sun  set  a  couple  of  hours  after  we  started, 
and  it  happened  to  be  a  very  dark  night,  much  clouded 
and  overcast,  with  an  occasional  shower  of  rain; 
though  this  is  scarcely  worth  mentioning,  except  that 
it  added  to  the  already  excessively  bad  condition  of 


A  RIDE  TOWARDS  OSTROLENKA  293 

the  road,  and  was  probably  one  of  the  causes  that  led 
to  mj  becoming  quite  bewildered. 

I  ought  not  to  have  been  sent  away  until  the  morn- 
ing, when  there  would  have  been  ample  time  for  me 
to  reach  Ostrolenka;  and  a  man  with  whom  I  had 
been  to  some  extent  acquainted  should  have  been  sent 
with  me.  A  man  to  whom  one  has  got  accustomed 
understands  a  nod  or  a  wave  of  the  hand;  but  the 
trooper  I  had  with  me  was  a  miserable  specimen  of 
humanity.  He  was  stupid,  almost  an  imbecile,  and 
I  had  never  seen  him  before ;  in  fact,  it  was  clear  he 
had  been  sent  with  me  because  he  was  not  of  much 
use  in  the  camp,  and  I  had  to  look  after  him,  or  he 
would  very  soon  have  been  floundering  in  the  bog 
which  extended  over  miles  of  the  country  on  either 
side  of  the  road. 

There  are  not  many  villages  or  hamlets  on  this 
road ;  but  there  are  a  few  houses  occupied  by  gentry 
and  people  of  substance ;  and  perceiving  a  twinkling 
light  in  one  of  them,  I  determined  to  seek  a  night's 
lodging  therein.  It  was  not  far  off,  but  there  was 
something  like  a  river  of  mud  in  front  of  it.  One 
horse  fell,  and  we  both  had  narrow  escapes  of  com- 
ing to  grief.  After  much  difficulty  we  found  the  gate 
of  the  yard.  It  was  locked.  I  felt  my  way  round 
to  the  front-door,  to  reach  which  I  had  to  climb  a 
second  gate.  At  my  first  knock  the  light  was  put 
out ;  and  in  vain  I  continued  to  hammer  at  the  door. 
Nobody  answered  my  knock,  nor  could  I  hear  any 
movement  in  the  house.  I  was  compelled  to  return 
to  my  companion,  who  was  far  too  stupid  to  under- 


294       AN  ENGLISHMAN  IN  THE  RUSSIAN  RANKS 

stand  the  situation.  Unfortunately  I  could  not  re- 
member the  Russian  words  for  "  knock  "  and  "  door," 
but  I  could  say  "  come " ;  and  by  dint  of  pulling, 
pushing  and  shouting  I  got  the  man  round  to  the  door, 
almost  throwing  him  over  the  second  gate.  Then  I 
resumed  my  knocking,  telling  the  man  "  to  call."  I 
am  sure  we  spent  more  than  half  an  hour  in  this  un- 
interesting occupation:  quite  in  vain,  and  I  became 
convinced  that  the  people  of  the  house  were  deter- 
mined not  to  admit,  us. 

We  had  no  alternative  except  to  return  to  the  yard 
where  we  had  left  our  horses.  By  great  good  for- 
tune I  happened  to  have  a  box  of  matches  in  my 
pocket,  though  these  useful  things  were  scarce  at 
the  front ;  and  by  striking  a  few  of  them  I  ascertained 
that  the  yard  was  of  good  size,  and  surrounded  on 
two  sides  by  rows  of  stables.  There  was  also  a  hay- 
rick, and  in  one  corner  a  pile  of  wood :  and  two  open 
sheds  with  carts  in  them. 

I  determined  to  pass  the  night  in  the  yard  if  I 
could  get  the  horses  into  it.  We  had  left  them  out- 
side, tied  to  posts;  and  one  of  them  kept  up  a  con- 
tinual neighing  which  was  answered  by  another  horse 
in  one  of  the  stables.  No  doubt  these  sounds  were 
heard  by  the  inmates  of  the  house,  who  probably  mis- 
took us  for  a  German  cavalry  patrol. 

Our  first  work  was  to  open  the  gate ;  no  easy  task. 
I  first  tried  to  force  back  the  lock,  and  broke  two 
pitchforks  in  the  attempt.  Then  the  trooper  found 
a  kind  of  crowbar,  and  with  this  I  wrenched  the  lock 
clean  off.     So  we  were  enabled  to  bring  the  horses 


A  RIDE  TOWARDS  OSTROLENKA  295 

in,  and  removing  one  of  the  carts  from  the  shed,  bed 
them  on  hay.  A  fire  was  made  in  the  yard,  the  wood 
being  liberally  used  for  this  purpose;  but  the  only 
food  we  had  was  a  couple  of  ammunition  biscuits. 
Before  lying  down,  we  made  another  attempt  to 
arouse  the  people  of  the  house.  In  vain:  we  ap- 
peared to  have  thoroughly  frightened  them. 

Away  across  the  country  I  perceived  the  sullen 
red  glare  of  a  burning  house,  and  I  wondered  if  the 
reflection  of  our  own  fire  would  bring  danger  upon 
us:  for  I  had  become  convinced  that  the  enemy  was 
not  far  off.  However,  I  determined  to  keep  in  the 
fire  as  the  night  was  a  bitterly  cold  one,  considering 
that  the  risk  of  freezing  was  more  imminent  than  the 
danger  of  capture. 

Old  campaigners  know  how  to  make  a  warm  and 
comfortable  bed  out  of  a  truss  of  hay  or  straw ;  and 
we  slept  snugly  and  soundly  till  daylight,  when  the 
trooper  went,  on  his  own  initiative,  round  to  the 
house  again,  and  I  soon  heard  his  thunderous  knocks 
and  kicks,  accompanied  by  stentorian  shouts.  He 
was  beginning  to  comprehend  what  was  wanted  of 
him ;  and  if  I  could  only  have  clearly  conveyed  ideas 
to  his  dull  intellect  I  have  no  doubt  he  would  have 
made  a  very  obedient  and  useful  animal.  As  it  was 
I  did  not  even  know  the  man's  name ;  but  I  took  to 
calling  him  "  Bill  " ;  and  he  grinned,  and  learned  his 
new  designation  as  readily  as  a  faithful  dog.  Poor 
Bill !  I  saw,  all  through  our  short  acquaintanceship, 
that  he  was  doing  his  best,  and  I  am  glad  that  I 
never  felt  the  least  anger  or  irritation  against  him. 


296       AN  ENGLISHMAN  IN  THE  RUSSIAN  RANKS 

Somehow  he  contrived  to  bring  somebody  to  the 
door:  daylight  makes  a  lot  of  difference.  People 
can  see  the  innocence  of  the  dove !  and  the  helpless- 
ness of  the  crow!  and  we  all  (I  do  not  mind  con- 
fessing it)  are  much  pluckier  at  midday  than  at  mid- 
night. 

I  suppose  Bill  made  explanations :  for  he  returned 
with  a  gentleman  and  a  lady  —  and  a  gaping  maid 
behind  them.  The  gentleman  looked  at  his  broken 
pitchforks  and  gate,  his  scattered  hay,  and  burning 
wood,  and  his  glance  was  not  a  pleasant  one.  He 
did  not  notice  my  best  bow  and  propitiatory  smile; 
but  the  lady  did  —  with  a  stolid  stare  that  made  me 
very  uncomfortable;  and  dumbfounded  Bill,  whose 
mouth  opened  to  the  widest  extent,  while  he  fidgeted 
from  one  leg  to  the  other,  and  made  one  painfully 
aware  that  he  did  not  know  what  to  do  with  his  hands. 

Then  the  gentleman  spoke,  and  likewise  the  lady; 
and  the  maid  became  abusive  —  no  one  who  saw  her 
attitude  and  heard  her  voice  could  have  doubted  that. 
I  would  have  given  a  small  world  to  explain  matters : 
and  in  fact  I  did  so,  in  my  mother  tongue;  which 
had  these  good  effects  —  it  convinced  the  people  that 
I  was  very  humble  and  contrite,  and  induced  Bill  to 
close  his  mouth  sufficiently  to  enable  him  to  speak  — 
with  that  kind  of  eloquence  (this  was  my  impression) 
which  consists  in  repeating  over  and  over  again,  '"  I 
am  sure  I  couldn't  help  it  " ;  which  is  far  more  effec- 
tive than  carefully  prepared  excuses  —  sometimes  at 
least:  and  on  this  occasion  most  certainly. 

The  gentleman  stalked  away,  and  the  lady  fol- 


A  RIDE  TOWARDS  OSTROLENKA  297 

lowed,  lingering  to  east  upon  us  about  the  most 
viperish  flash  of  the  eyes  that  I  have  ever  seen  dis- 
figure a  pretty  face. 

The  maid  remained  to  fire  a  final  withering  volley ; 
and  then  took  herself  off,  further  discomfiting  us 
with  a  sharp,  dropping  fire  as  she  retired.  You  see, 
we  had  probably  much  upset  the  nerves  of  these 
people,  and  frightened  them,  as  well  as  taken  an 
enemy-like  series  of  liberties  with  their  property. 
I  have  related  these  incidents  in  a  light  and  amusing 
strain;  but  really  I  was  a  good  deal  upset  at  the 
time,  and  rather  ashamed  of  myseK,  though  perhaps 
such  proceedings  are  justifiable  when  war  lowers 
over  a  land. 

But  Bill  may  not  have  been  such  a  booby  as  he 
looked  and  acted  on  ordinary  occasions:  for  he  fol- 
lowed the  girl,  and  soon  afterwards  came  and  beck- 
oned me  to  accompany  him;  and  I  was  quite  sur- 
prised to  be  led  up  the  front-door  steps  and  into  a 
very  decently  furnished  breakfast-room,  on  the  table 
of  which  there  was  an  excellent  meal  ready  spread. 
The  lady  and  gentleman  were  there,  and  there  was 
^  a  complete  change  in  their  demeanour.  Now  they 
could  not  be  affable  enough ;  and  motioning  me  to  be 
seated,  handed  me  coffee  and  bacon  and  eggs,  with 
several  other  luxuries  I  had  not  tasted  for  a  long 
time.  The  lady  herself  waited  upon  me,  and  did  so 
with  a  kindness  and  grace  that  was  in  strong  con- 
trast to  her  previous  truculent  looks.  What  story 
had  the  astute  Bill  preached  to  her  and  her  husband 
to  occasion  this  change  of  behaviour  ? 


298       AN  ENGLISHMAN  IN  THE  RUSSIAN  RANKS 

What  these  people  thought  of  me  I  cannot  guess; 
but  thej  must  have  seen,  from  the  way  in  which  I 
ate,  that  I  was  famished.  They  gave  no  outward  in- 
dication that  they  noticed  anything  unusual  about 
me. 

The  trooper,  I  suppose,  was  entertained  in  the 
lower  part  of  the  house.  That  he  was  faring  very' 
well  I  knew  from  the  occasional  outbursts  of  his 
merry  laughter.  Doubtless  he  was  also  making  him- 
self agreeable  to  the  maid,  oblivious  of  the  tragedy 
that  was  soon  to  occur:  but  such  is  a  soldier's  lot. 
Often  have  I  known  men  to  be  laughing,  joking,  or 
playing  cards,  two  minutes  before  their  heads  were 
smashed  from  their  shoulders,  or  a  bullet  sent  whiz- 
zing through  their  hearts. 

It  was  ten  o'clock  before  breakfast  was  finished, 
and  I  rose  to  go,  expressing  my  thanks  for  the  kind 
entertainment  I  had  received  as  best  I  could;  and 
I  had  the  pleasure  of  seeing  that  I  was  understood. 
My  host  and  his  wife  (I  assume  this  was  their  rela- 
tionship) accompanied  me  to  the  stable-yard,  where 
I  found  the  horses  had  been  saddled  by  two  of  their 
own  men;  and  the  trooper  was  already  astride  his 
mount.  We  rode  away  with  many  expressions  of 
thanks  on  my  part  and  many  flourishes  of  the  hand 
from  us  all.  I  looked  back  for  the  last  time  when  we 
were  half  a  verst  along  the  road.  I  could  see  the  lady 
still  standing  outside  the  gate,  and  just  detect  the  flut- 
ter of  her  white  handkerchief.  It  was  very  satisfac- 
tory to  feel  wo  were  freely  forgiven. 

The  country  was  now  pretty  open  to  view,  and  I 


^S.^tlK"' 


■n 
A 


W 


n 


■^ 


:3 


A  RIDE  TOWARDS  OSTROLENKA  299 

have  seldom  seen  a  wilder  landscape,  or  one  wliich 
had  a  more  depressing  effect  on  the  spirits.  Dark 
pines  were  scattered  about,  and  we  passed  an  occa- 
sional wood;  otherwise  the  comitry  might  be  de- 
scribed as  a  lake  of  mud,  with  here  and  there  a  plot 
covered  with  half-melted  snow,  which  increased  the 
general  dirty  and  unwholesome  appearance  of  the 
whole'district.  We  could  see  for  about  a  dozen  versts 
in  most  directions,  and  yet  only  four  or  five  small 
farmhouses,  and  as  many  isolated  cottages,  were  in 
sight.  A  solitary  worker  in  the  fields  was  the  only 
man  we  saw  for  an  hour.  A  great  black  patch  in 
the  distance  proved  to  be,  when  we  came  up  to  it,  a 
burnt  village.  The  destruction  was  complete.  I^ot 
a  wall  was  left,  nor  a  heap  of  bricks  that  one  could 
not  easily  step  over.  What  had  become  of  the  inhabi- 
tants of  this  collection  of  wrecked  homes  ?  'Not  a 
soul  was  there  when  we  went  by.  Then  for  a  long 
way  we  passed  bones,  skulls  and  parts  of  skeletons 
still  intact ;  not  lying  in  lines  and  heaps  as  I  had  seen 
them  doing  in  places  where  great  battles  had  been 
fought,  but  scattered  along  the  side  of  the  road, 
singly,  or  two  or  three  together.  I  thought  they 
might  be  the  remains  of  the  village  people,  slain  as 
they  were  running  away ;  but  on  dismounting  to  ex- 
amine them  more  closely  I  satisfied  myself  that  some 
of  them,  at  least,  had  once  been  German  soldiers,  and 
others  Russians.  A  few  had  rusty  rifles  lying  be- 
neath them,  and  leather  cartridge  pouches  were  still 
strapped  round  the  bones.  In  many  cases  the  flesh 
had  not  disappeared,  but  was  shrunken.     The  bodies. 


300       AN  ENGLISHMAN  IN  THE  RUSSIAN  RANKS 

must  have  been  rotting  when  the  snow  fell  and  cov- 
ered them,  which  prevented  further  decay.  Crows 
and  ravens  were  flitting  about  the  fields,  as  well  as  a 
few  dogs  and  pigs:  the  invariable  haunters  of  the 
neglected  battle-fields.  These  horrible  relics  of  "  the 
glories  of  war  "  extended  for  a  linear  distance  of  ten 
versts  along  the  sides  of  the  roads  —  how  far  across 
the  fields  I  cannot  say.  They  numbered  many  hun- 
dreds, if  not  thousands:  and  probably  a  great  many 
had  been  buried  or  removed. 

We  rode  on  several  hours,  and  I  wondered  that  the 
town  of  Ostrolenka  did  not  appear  in  sight.  It  was 
vexatious  that  I  could  not  question  my  companion. 
My  first  suspicion  that  he  had  taken  the  wrong  road 
was  aroused  by  his  stopping  to  call  to  a  man  in  the 
fields.  The  replies  he  got  were  evidently  not  satis- 
factory; and  he  seemed  to  be  at  a  loss  to  know  what 
course  to  pursue.  After  a  further  consultation  with 
the  man,  and  much  pointing  and  gesticulation,  the 
trooper  took  a  branch  road.  I  was  very  loth  to  fol- 
low this,  but  could  not  make  the  man  understand  my 
meaning ;  and  I  really  did  not  know  which  way  to  turn 
myself.     I  was  compelled,  in  a  way,  to  follow  him. 

We  had  ridden  along  the  fresh  road  about  six 
versts  when,  on  rounding  a  small  wood,  we  saw  a 
weak  squadron  of  Uhlans  in  front  of  us,  and  not  more 
than  300  yards  away.  They  perceived  us  too,  and 
shouted  an  order  for  us  to  halt.  I  turned  on  the  in- 
stant, and  put  the  wood  between  myself  and  the  en- 
emy, but  there  was  nowhere  to  go  except  along  the 
road,  or  across  the  open  fields. 


^  A  RIDE  TOWARDS  OSTROLENKA  301 

Cavalry  now  carry  rifles,  not  carbines,  and  the 
seventy  men  behind  us  would  almost  certainly  shoot 
us  down  at  short  range.  I  thought  I  should  prefer 
that  fate  to  lingering  in  a  German  prison,  subjected 
to  the  arrogance  and  brutality  of  Hun  gaolers;  and 
so  I  put  spurs  to  my  horse,  and  forced  him  to  his 
utmost  pace.  In  a  few  minutes  I  looked  back, 
anxiously.  The  Uhlans  were  in  full  cry  after  us. 
The  trooper  was  twenty  yards  behind  me,  urging  on 
his  horse. 

What  to  do  I  did  not  know.  At  one  moment  I 
thought  to  return  to  the  house  where  we  had  passed 
the  night ;  but  a  moment's  reflection  convinced  me  of 
the  folly  of  doing  this.  It  could  not  possibly  save 
us,  and  would  most  certainly  lead  to  the  destruction 
of  persons  who  had  been  friendly  to  us. 

We  were  better  mounted  than  the  majority  of  the 
Uhlans,  and  gradually  gained  ground  away  from 
them.  Seeing  this  they  tried  shooting ;  but  it  is  diffi- 
cult to  hit  even  a  large  mark  when  going  at  a  gallop ; 
and  after  wasting  fifty  or  sixty  cartridges  they  gave 
it  up,  and  about  a  dozen  of  their  best  mounted  men 
pushed  to  the  front ;  and  I  soon  saw  that  we  had  much 
to  fear  from  them.  We  could  not  get  away  from 
them,  and  they  began  to  gain  on  us. 

Then  I  perceived  a  low  ridge  of  ground  which  was 
not  so  marshy  as  the  fields,  and  dashed  across  it,  the 
trooper  following  my  lead.  The  Ulilans  also  came 
on  with  unabated  speed,  and  I  saw  that  it  was  a  ques- 
tion of  horse-endurance. 

Ahead,  a  black  smoke,  slowly  curling  upwards,  was. 


302       AN  ENGLISHMAN  IN  THE  RUSSIAN  RANKS 

I  thought,  the  place  we  had  seen  burning  the  previ- 
ous night.  We  seemed  to  be  going  directly  towards 
it ;  and  I  feared  that  there  might  be  more  Germans 
directly  in  front  of  us,  or  that  the  road  might  be 
blocked  and  impassable. 

From  time  to  time  I  looked  back  at  our  pursuers. 
At  the  end  of  an  hour  the  foremost  of  them  were  not 
200  yards  behind,  the  rest  had  trailed  out  into  a 
straggling  line.  Still  they  were  near  enough  to  sup- 
port one  another  if  we  turned  on  the  leaders :  a  thing 
I  had  half  a  mind  to  do. 

It  was  now  late  in  the  afternoon,  and  if  we  could 
keep  away  for  another  hour  it  would  be  dark,  and 
there  would  be  a  chance  of  escape ;  but  my  horse  was 
getting  blown,  and  several  of  the  Uhlans  had  fallen 
out,  unable  to  keep  up  the  pace.  Then  the  wretches 
resumed  their  firing:  and  in  a  few  minutes  the 
trooper  swerved  in  his  saddle,  groaning  badly.  He 
rode  on  a  few  yards  farther,  and  then  fell  with  a  cry 
I  could  not  resist;  I  reined  in,  and  jumped  to  his 
assistance;  but  he  died  just  as  the  Uhlans  came  up 
'•  and  surrounded  me.  I  shall  not  attempt  to  describe 
I  the  shock  it  gave  me  to  realize  that  I  was  a  prisoner. 
I  looked  towards  my  horse,  but  a  sturdy  unter-officer 
had  secured  it,  and  my  captors  began  to  laugh  and 
jeer. 

I  was  not  allowed  to  remount  my  horse ;  but,  fast- 
ened to  one  fellow's  stirrup,  was  compelled  to  walk, 
limping  sadly,  for  my  feet  were  now  very  bad. 


CHAPTER  XXIV 

A    PEISONER    IN    GEKMAN    HANDS 

A  PRISONER :  and  to  the  Germans !  The  very  thought 
■was  a  horror.  And  these  people  treated  me  badly 
from  the  first,  as  they  appear  to  treat  all  their  pris- 
oners. Twice  I  fell  on  account  of  the  state  of  my 
feet,  and  was  dragged  along  the  ground.  The  clothes 
were  nearly  torn  from  my  back;  and  my  revolver, 
which  I  had  hitherto  contrived  to  keep,  was  discov- 
ered and  confiscated.  Very  fortunately  I  had  hid- 
den my  money,  and  this  was  not  found  by  the  men, 
though  they  carefully  turned  out  all  my  pockets. 
^When  they  had  done  with  me  I  was  left  with  a  comb, 
my  rags,  and  the  last  few  of  my  English  sovereigns. 

At  dusk  we  arrived  at  the  still-smoking  ruins  of 
a  hamlet.  One  or  two  houses  near  by  were  still  in- 
tact, and  occupied  by  a  dismounted  party  of  the 
Uhlans,  some  twenty  men  in  number. 

I  was  taken  to  the  top  of  the  house,  and  locked  in 
a  room  with  eight  other  prisoners,  six  Russian  sol- 
diers belonging  to  the  artillery  and  98th  regiment; 
and  two  peasants.  There  was  some  straw  on  the 
floor  on  which  the  soldiers  were  lying.  They  made 
room  for  me,  and  spoke  to  me ;  but  when  they  found 
I  could  not  speak  more  than  a  few  sentences  of  their 
language,  I  seemed  to  become  an  object  of  suspicion 

to  them. 

303 


304        AN  ENGLISHMAN  IN  THE  RUSSIAN  RANKS 

I  was  tired,  and  my  feet  gave  me  great  pain,  so 
that  I  was  glad  to  lie  down  and  remain  quiet.  Sleep 
I  could  not ;  partly  because  of  my  misery,  partly  be- 
cause the  two  countrymen  prayed  continually  and 
frantically  all  through  the  night.  Strange;  but  I 
did  not  guess  the  reason  till  daybreak,  when  they 
were  fetched  out  by  a  TJhlan  guard;  and  the  other 
prisoners  crowded  to  the  two  windows.  I  got  a  place 
at  one  of  them  to  see  what  was  going  on. 

I  saw  the  two  peasants  brought  into  the  court- 
yard of  the  house  and  blindfolded.  They  were  then 
placed  against  a  wall,  where  one  of  them  fell  to  his 
knees.  He  was  brutally  kicked  until  he  stood  up 
again,  when  he  leaned  against  the  wall,  rocking  him- 
self in  agony  of  spirit.  The  other  man  stood  stolid, 
like  a  statue,  probably  paralyzed  by  fear.  Only 
three  soldiers  to  each  man  formed  the  firing-party, 
and  neither  of  the  prisoners  was  killed  outright. 
One  of  them  screamed  horribly,  the  other  tried  to 
rise  to  his  feet.  A  non-commissioned  officer  stepped 
forward  very  deliberately,  and  blew  their  brains  out 
one  after  the  other.  The  whole  terrible  scene  affected 
me  so  greatly  that  I  could  not  forbear  hissing,  in 
which  I  was  joined  by  the  soldiers.  There  was  no 
glass  in  the  windows,  so  the  Germans  plainly  heard 
us;  and  shortly  afterwards  a  party  of  them  came 
into  the  room,  and  beat  us  with  sticks  until  I  thought 
they  meant  to  murder  us.  I  used  my  fists  pretty 
freely,  until  I  was  knocked  senseless. 

When  I  came  to,  I  found  that  breakfast  had  been, 
served,  consisting  of  a  can  of  dirty  water  for  each 


A  PRISONER  IN  GERMAN  HANDS  305 

man,  and  about  half  a  pound  of  black  bread  of  the 
consistence  of  puttj.  We  were  not  allowed  to  leave 
the  room  all  day;  and  the  place  stank  abominably. 
Another  meal  was  served  in  the  afternoon,  it  con- 
sisted, like  the  former  one,  of  half  a  pound  of  wet 
bread,  and  a  few  ounces  of  fat  mutton.  The  drink 
was  water  of  so  filthy  an  appearance  that  only  dire 
necessity  compelled  me  to  swallow  a  few  mouthfuls 
of  it.  We  were  granted  no  facilities  for  personal 
cleanliness. 

Early  the  next  morning  we  were  fetched  out  and 
paraded,  and  I  saw  that  the  Uhlans  were  ready  for 
a  march.  An  officer  began  to  question  me  in  Rus- 
sian. I  said,  in  French,  that  I  could  not  speak  Rus- 
sian. "  Are  you  French  ?  "  he  asked  in  surprise. 
"  N"©."  "  What  are  you  then  ?  "  I  blurted  out  that  I 
was  an  Englishman;  and  expected  that  I  had  com- 
mitted myself.  It  was  an  agreeable  surprise  when 
the  officer  said  that  he  had  spent  twelve  years  in  Eng- 
land, and  had  always  been  well  treated  there.  He 
immediately  became  very  friendly,  gave  me  cigars, 
sent  into  the  house  for  the  remains  of  a  sausage  and 
some  good  bread,  was  sorry  that  they  had  no  tea  or 
coffee,  but  gave  me  half  a  bottle  of  champagne  in- 
stead. Again  I  had  met  with  one  of  those  lucky 
chances  that  have,  from  time  to  time,  lightened  the 
burden  of  life. 

When  I  explained  to  Captain  Eshricke  (this  is 
how  he  pronounced  his  name)  the  condition  of  my 
feet,  he  very  kindly  ordered  that  I  should  be  per- 
mitted to  ride  my  horse;   but  he  first   exacted   a 


306       AN  ENGLISHMAN  IN  THE  RUSSIAN  RANKS 

promise  tliat  I  would  not  attempt  to  escape.  I  was 
compelled  to  give  this  promise,  though  I  did  so  with 
some  reluctance.  I  also  persuaded  him  to  permit 
my  fellow-prisoners  to  ride  in  a  country  cart,  as  they 
were  in  a  very  tired  condition,  and  it  is  difficult  for 
infantry  to  keep  up  with  cavalry  even  when  going  at 
a  foot  pace. 

I  made  no  reference  to  the  shooting  of  the  two 
prisoners,  but  later  the  Captain  himself  adverted  to 
it.  "  You  saw  those  two  fellows  shot  this  morning  ? 
They  deserved  it.  They  set  fire  to  those  buildings 
to  burn  us  out,  and  were  caught  red-handed." 

I  do  not  know  if  this  were  true ;  but  it  could  hardly 
justify  the  terrible  beating  to  which  we  had  been 
subjected,  and  some  of  the  effects  of  which  I  felt  for 
many  weeks  afterwards.  But  one  cannot  argue  with 
kings  and  Germans;  and  I  had  cause  to  think  that 
^' All's  well  that  ends  well,"  although  I  received  no 
apology. 

In  war,  and  in  this  war  in  particular,  a  still  tongue 
makes  a  safe  head,  and  I  did  not  think  it  wise  to  be 
too  inquisitive,  considering  that  I  might  find  it  diffi- 
cult to  establish  my  position  if  I  were  asked  who  and 
what  I  was,  and  what  had  brought  me  to  Poland.  I 
had  seen  that  morning  that  even  a  Captain  of  Uhlans 
could  make  short  work  of  people  he  chose  to  consider 
offenders.  But  I  did  venture  to  ask  Eshricke  if  he 
had  any  objection  to  tell  me  where  he  was  going  to 
take  me.     "  ]^ot  far,"  was  his  laconic  reply. 

"We  travelled  northward:  I  had  little  doubt  then, 
that  we  were  making  for  the  Prussian  frontier,  which, 


A  PRISONER  IN  GERMAN  HANDS  307 

I  calculated,  could  not  be  many  miles  away.  So 
far  as  I  could  see,  the  Ulilans  were  a  flying-party  on 
observation  duty,  with  no  immediate  supports  in  the 
neighbourhood;  although  I  was  sufficiently  ac- 
quainted with  German  military  tactics  to  be  quite 
sure  the  Captain  knew  where  to  find  reinforcements 
when  he  required  them.  The  squadron  was  not 
nearly  at  war  strength,  consisting  of  less  than  seventy 
mounted  men  and  eighteen  who  had  lost  their  horses, 
and  followed  us  in  three  military  carts.  That  their 
losses  had  occurred  in  recent  fighting  was  shown  by 
the  thirteen  or  fourteen  wounded  men  amongst  them, 
as  well  as  by  the  absence  of  their  horses.  Many  of 
the  men  were  repulsive-looking  ruffians;  and  what 
their  dispositions  were  like  was  shown  by  more  than 
one  unpleasant  incident  during  the  march.  Here  is 
one  example  of  German  playfulness : 

We  entered  a  small  village  (Prajashzhol,  accord- 
ing to  Eshricke),  rather  as  a  surprise,  I  think;  for 
the  inhabitants  had  not  fled,  or  hidden  themselves. 
It  seemed  to  be  market-day  here,  and  there  were 
carts  and  stalls  in  the  little  square.  Some  of  these 
began  to  depart  hastily  on  sight  of  the  Uhlans ;  but 
the  soldiers  dismounted,  and  made  purchases,  for 
which  they  paid  in  German  coin.  There  was  noth- 
ing to  comment  on  in  this  act ;  for,  I  believe,  Eussian 
and  German  money  is  interchangeable  on  the  border 
lands,  and  is  freely  accepted,  and  tendered,  by  the 
peoples  of  the  two  countries.  But  there  was  there 
a  young  Polish  girl  selling  cakes.  The  day  was 
warm,  and  she  had  no  cloak  or  cape  on ;  and  her  hair 


308       AN  ENGLISHMAN  IN  THE  RUSSIAN  RANKS 

liiing  down  her  back,  plaited  into  two  thick  tresses. 
"While  two  of  the  Uhlans  were  buying  cakes,  a  third 
went  behind,  and  suddenly  seized  her  tresses,  and 
giving  them  a  sharp  tug,  pulled  her  down  backwards 
so  that  she  lay  flat  on  the  ground,  half-dazed  by  the 
shock.  This  unmanly  act  caused  much  merriment 
amongst  the  soldiers,  who  laughed  heartily,  though 
the  poor  girl  (she  was  about  twenty)  was  hurt,  and 
cried  when  she  was  helped  up.  This  was  considered 
a  joke  —  what  a  TJlilan  in  temper  is  like  may  be 
surmised.  The  young  girls  and  women  seemed  to 
know;  for  they  disappeared  very  speedily,  but  not 
before  several  of  them  had  been  grossly  insulted. 
Nor  did  the  men  fare  any  better.  Disputes  soon  oc- 
curred, and  I  saw  two  of  the  peasants  knocked  down, 
and  a  third  cut  across  the  face  with  a  whip.  Another 
■was  chased  into  a  house  by  a  Uhlan  with  a  drawn 
sword,  and  perhaps  killed :  I  do  not  know. 

Nearly  all  the  soldiers  were  soon  drunk:  their 
proper  state,  perhaps,  as  a  tipsy  German  is  generally 
less  irritable  and  arrogant  than  a  sober  one,  and  cer- 
tainly less  mischievous.  On  the  whole  I  think  less 
harm  was  done  at  Prajashzhol  than  the  Germans  usu- 
ally inflicted  on  places  that  had  the  misfortune  to  re- 
ceive a  visit  from  them.  There  were  no  cases  of  in- 
cendiarism, and  the  women  were  not  subjected  to  the 
worst  forms  of  insult.  There  was  some  violence, 
and  plundering  was  rife;  though  many  of  the  men 
paid  for  what  they  took. 

About  this  time  I  noticed  that  there  was  a  great 
increase  in  the  number  of  aeroplanes  and  airships 


A  PRISONER  IN  GERMAN  HANDS  309 

hovering  over  the  country.  I  usually  saw  one  or  two 
every  day,  mostly  German  craft;  on  this  21st  April 
I  saw  no  fewer  than  six,  and  one  Zeppelin.  They 
were  making  an  attack  on  a  Russian  position  about 
five  miles  away ;  but  it  was  not  successful  —  few  such 
attacks  are.  One  of  the  aeroplanes  dropped  no  doubt 
within  the  Russian  lines ;  and  another  soon  after  it 
had  retired  and  flown  over  our  heads.  Both  ma- 
chines came  down  slowly.  I  saw  the  two  men  who 
worked  the  one  that  fell  near  us.  The  aviator  was 
badly  knocked  about,  and  his  face  much  cut;  but  I 
do  not  think  that  he  was  dangerously  hurt.  The 
mechanic  was  not  so  much  injured:  the  aeroplane 
was  wrecked. 

The  Zeppelin  seemed  to  be  injured;  but  she  got 
away  and  sailed  out  of  sight.  We  distinctly  heard 
the  reports  of  the  exploding  bombs  dropped  by  these 
craft,  and  explosions  of  the  Russian  guns  fired  at 
them.  I  rejoiced  to  learn  my  friends  were  so  near, 
and  hoped  that  I  might  be  released  by  some  lucky 
chance,  but  this  did  not  occur. 

There  was  plenty  of  food  at  Prajashzhol  —  pork, 
fowls,  ducks,  bread,  beef  and  mutton,  and  vodka; 
but  vegetables  were  scarce,  even  potatoes;  and  wine 
there  was  none.  I  filled  my  haversack  with  suffi- 
cient food  to  last  three  or  four  days,  and  procured 
a  new  coat  of  rough  material. 

While  we  were  bivouacking  in  the  market-place,  a 
vidette  galloped  in  with  some  news  which  caused  Cap- 
tain Eshricke  to  mount  in  hot  haste,  and  we  literally 
bolted  from  the  village.     The  dismounted  men  and 


310      AN  ENGLISHMAN  IN  THE  RUSSIAN  RANKS 

the  six  Eussian  prisoners  were  left  behind  with  their 
carts,  and  were,  no  doubt,  retaken  by  the  pursuing 
Russians,  the  first  of  whom  appeared  as  we  passed 
the  last  houses  of  the  village  street.  I  tried  to  lag  be- 
hind, but  the  Captain  swore  he  would  shoot  me  if 
I  did  not  urge  my  horse  forward;  and  one  of  the 
Uhlans  pricked  the  animal  with  his  lance,  causing  it 
to  rear  and  dash  forward  wildly.  I  would  have 
fallen  off,  but  there  were  too  many  men  behind  me. 
I  should  have  been  trampled  to  death,  and  probably 
speared  into  the  bargain.  For  they  are  nasty-tem- 
pered fellows  are  the  Germans  when  things  are  run- 
ning counter  to  them;  and  the  first  Cossacks  that 
appeared  were  only  half  a  dozen  men,  and  they  held 
back  until  they  were  reinforced :  indeed,  they  did  not 
make  a  very  energetic  pursuit.  They  probably  knew 
that  there  was  a  strong  force  of  the  enemy  at  hand, 
and  feared  they  would  be  trapped. 

I  soon  learned  that  the  Uhlans  in  whose  hands  I 
was,  and  who  belonged  to  the  12th  regiment,  formed 
part  of  the  advanced  guard  of  a  whole  army  corps. 
At  nightfall  we  came  to  a  force  of  infantry,  whose 
numbers  I  could  not  estimate,  it  was  so  considerable, 
and  covered  so  wide  a  range  of  country. 

The  Captain  handed  me  over  to  the  first  outpost 
we  reached,  and  I  was  sent  to  the  rear  under  escort 
of  an  infantry  file.  My  horse  was  taken  from  me, 
and  my  feet  were  so  painful  that  I  could  scarcely 
hobble  along.  But  no  mercy  was  shown  me.  I  was 
compelled  to  walk  a  distance  of  about  four  English 
miles.     Then  we  came  to  a  small  cottage  which  was 


A  PRISONER  IN  GERMAN  HANDS  311 

being  used  as  a  guard-house.  Here  I  was  blind- 
folded, and  again  marched  on,  I  could  not  tell  in  what 
direction,  for  quite  an  hour,  when  we  arrived  at  an- 
other house.  I  then  found,  from  the  sounds,  that  I 
was  in  the  presence  of  several  officers  who  were  in- 
terrogating my  captors. 

Then  the  bandage  was  taken  from  my  eyes,  and  I 
was  searched.  The  officers  carefully  examined  my 
papers,  and  the  one  who  seemed  to  be  the  chief  spat 
out,  rather  than  spoke,  so  great  was  his  venom : 

"  So  you  are  an  English  spy,  you  dog !  " 

I  said  I  was  not  a  spy;  but  had  been  honourably 
jSghting  with  the  Russians,  and  was  captured  in  com- 
pany with  a  Russian  soldier  who  was  killed  at  the 
time. 

"  Don't  you  know  that  foreigners  are  not  permitted 
to  fight  in  the  Russian  Army  ?  "  asked  the  officer. 

I  said  that  I  did  not  know  anything  of  the  kind; 
but  I  had  been  fighting  in  the  Russian  ranks. 

'•  Spying  in  the  Russian  ranks,"  said  this  man, 
who  spoke  perfect  English.  "  Have  you  any  defence 
to  make  ?  " 

"  I  do  not  admit  that  a  true  charge  has  been  made 
against  me,  or  that  I  have  need  to  make  a  defence. 
I  am,  practically,  a  Russian  soldier,"  I  replied. 

"  Oh  !  "  said  the  officer,  very  sarcastically.  "  Have 
you  any  evidence  that  you  were  regularly  enlisted  in 
the  Russian  ranks,  which  we  know  to  be  impos- 
sible?" 

"  I  do  not  say  I  was  '  enlisted.'  The  papers  you 
have  taken  from  me  prove  that  I  held  honourable  re- 


312       AN  ENGLISHMAN  IN  THE  RUSSIAN  RANKS 

lations  with  the  Russian  Army,  and  that  I  have 
fought  with  it  for  a  period  of  nine  months." 

The  man  looked  through  my  papers  again.  Those 
written  in  Russian  he  evidently  could  not  read ;  but 
he  sent  for  a  soldier,  having  the  appearance  of  an 
orderly-room  clerk,  who  translated  them  to  the  offi- 
cers. 

"  Bah !  They  are  only  passports  to  enable  you 
to  carry  on  your  nefarious  business.  You  are  a 
spy,"  he  said ;  and  deliberately  tore  the  whole  of  the 
papers  to  shreds,  which  he  cast  on  the  floor. 

My  indignation  was  so  hot  that  I  exclaimed: 
**  You  scoundrel !  " 

"What!"  he  shouted.  "You  d d  English- 
man !  You  shall  be  shot  to-morrow  morning.  Take 
him  away." 

"  You  are  a  cowardly  murderer ! "  I  replied 
fiercely. 

I  did  not  get  an  opportunity  to  say  more ;  for  my 
guards  hauled  me  away  with  great  roughness,  and 
took  me  to  a  house  which  seemed  to  be  used  as  a 
prison ;  for  at  least  a  hundred  persons  were  crowded 
into  it.  Two-thirds  of  these  were  Russian  soldiers ; 
the  remainder  were  civilians  of  various  grades,  in- 
cluding one  woman,  a  lady  of  mature  years ;  and  one 
m.an  was  nursing  a  young  child. 

Was  there  ever  a  more  horrible  way  of  conducting 
war?  Women,  children,  harmless  citizens  and  hon- 
ourable soldiers,  treated  as  felons !  Is  there  to  be  a 
retribution  for  this  cruelty  and  wickedness  ? 

It  would  be  waste  of  time  to  pause  and  inquire 


A  PRISONER  IN  GERMAN  HANDS  313 

what  were  the  probable  charges  against  these 
civilians.  What  are  the  charges  against  a  bandit's 
victims  ?  The  revolutionists  of  '93  splashed  blood 
on  the  walls  of  their  cities :  Blood  should  be  splashed 
on  the  brows  of  the  German  monsters  who  have  del- 
uged Europe  with  it. 

I  believed  that  my  last  day  had  come.  I  had 
seen  too  much  of  the  German  method  with  prisoners 
to  entertain  the  least  hope  of  escape.  I  need  not 
trouble  to  record  my  feelings :  they  were  not  pleasant 
emotions. 

Those  in  the  room  were  passing  their  time  in  vari- 
ous ways.  Some  were  asleep  on  chairs,  or  lying  on. 
the  floor  in  corners.  So  many  were  smoking  that 
the  place  was  full  of  blue,  hazy  smoke.  The  woman, 
with  bowed  head,  seemed  dazed  with  wretchedness, 
the  child  was  whimpering.  From  the  way  in  which 
many  of  the  men  stared  at  me,  I  thought  that  they 
knew  that  I  was  appointed  to  die.  One  party  de- 
voted as  much  attention  to  me  as  they  did  to  the 
cards  they  were  playing.  The  guard  numbered  a 
dozen  men,  who  occupied  an  ante-room,  were  laugh- 
ing, talking  noisily,  and  singing  beastly  songs ;  a  cir- 
cumstance that  convinced  me  that  the  house  occupied 
an  isolated  position,  not  near  any  body  of  troops 
commanded  by  an  officer  above  subaltern  rank,  who 
would  soon  have  put  a  stop  to  the  ribaldry.  These 
things  did  not  occur  to  me  just  at  the  moment;  but 
they  flashed  on  my  mind  later,  when  a  certain  inci- 
dent occurred. 

I  suppose  it  was  about  midnight ;  but  there  was  no 


314       AN  ENGLISHMAN  IN  THE  RUSSIAN  RANKS 

means  of  telling  the  time.  Many  of  the  guard- 
soldiers  were  dozing;  the  rest  had  quieted  down,  but 
were  talking  together,  and  not  taking  particular  no- 
tice of  the  prisoners. 

Two  of  the  men  who  were  playing  cards  got  up, 
and  came  and  stood  in  front  of  me.  One  of  them, 
first  looking  round  to  see  that  the  soldiers  were  not 
observing  him,  pointed  his  thumb  at  them,  and 
winked ;  then  he  made  a  gesture  of  striking  a  terrific 
blow.  He  looked  at  me  inquiringly;  and  I  thought 
I  comprehended  what  he  meant,  and  nodded  ac- 
quiescence. He  replied  by  a  nod  of  satisfaction ;  and 
he  and  his  companion  retired  to  the  far  end  of  the 
room. 

What  they  seemed  to  propose  to  do  was  a  desper- 
ate act.  They  appeared  to  intend  to  rush  past  the 
guards,  knocking  down  any  who  attempted  to  oppose 
them,  and  so  get  away.  I  made  up  my  mind  that, 
since  death  must  come,  I  would  rather  die  making  a 
desperate  effort  for  my  life  than  wait  an  hour  or  two 
longer  to  be  led  out  in  the  grey  dawn,  tied  up  and  shot 
like  a  dog.  At  that  moment  I  was  strung  up  to  such 
a  pitch  of  nerve  that  no  action  could  be  too  desperate 
for  me  to  attempt. 

There  was  a  yard  attached  to  the  house,  which  the 
prisoners  were  permitted  to  use,  as  occasion  required. 
It  was  approached  by  a  short  passage  from  the  guard- 
room ;  and  a  sentry  was  posted  in  the  yard  to  prevent 
prisoners  escaping  over  the  wall,  which  was  nine  or 
ten  feet  high. 


A  PRISONER  IN  GERMAN  HANDS  315 

Presently  the  two  men  I  have  mentioned,  both  o£ 
them  soldiers  of  the  Russian  artillery,  went  out,  one 
of  them  raising  his  hand  slightly  as  he  passed  through 
the  door.  I  nodded  to  intimate  that  I  would  come. 
I  was  beginning  to  perceive  more  clearly  what  was 
intended.  I  followed  at  once.  As  I  entered  the 
yard  one  of  the  prisoners  quietly  shut  the  door  behind 
me.  The  sentry  began  to  speak,  probably  protest- 
ing, as  I  think  only  one  or  two  prisoners  at  a  time 
were  permitted  to  enter  the  yard.  Before  he  had 
well  opened  his  mouth  one  of  the  prisoners  sprang  on 
him  from  behind  and  clasped  his  throat;  the  other 
threw  himself  on  him  in  front  and  tore  his  rifle  out 
of  his  hands.  He  was  lifted  off  his  feet  and  held 
across  the  knees  of  one  of  the  prisoners.  He  could 
not  utter  any  sound  except  a  smothered  gurgle,  but  he 
kicked  desperately.  I  saw  what  was  wanted  of  me, 
and  clasped  his  legs  with  all  my  strength.  So  we 
held  him  till  he  died. 

Then  the  prisoners  acted  with  the  nimbleness  of 
monkeys.  One  of  them  gave  me  a  leg  up  the  wall; 
I  did  not  wait  to  see  how  they  got  up ;  it  was  a  matter 
of  life  or  death  to  act  quickly.  The  three  of  us  were 
over  the  wall  and  in  the  street  in  three  seconds.  I 
noticed  that  my  companions  had  taken  off  their  boots. 
I  followed  their  example,  and  rushed  up  the  street 
after  them.  It  led  out  into  the  open  country ;  and  as 
there  was  some  moonlight  I  rushed  towards  a  patch 
of  trees  and  bushes  —  a  copse,  I  suppose.  As  I  en- 
tered it  I  saw  that  one  of  the  prisoners  was  already 


316       AN  ENGLISHMAN  IN  THE  RUSSIAN  RANKS 

there.  He  immediately  hid  himself,  and  I  did  not 
see  him  or  his  companion  again ;  nor  do  I  know  what 
became  of  them. 

It  was  a  very  small  wood ;  of  some  length,  but  not 
more  than  twenty  or  thirty  yards  wide.  It  will  be 
inferred,  though  I  have  forgotten  to  actually  say  so, 
that  there  were  lights  in  the  prison-house.  I  could 
see  these  lights  dimly  showing  through  two  of  the 
blinded  windows:  and  farther  back  I  could  see  a 
single  bright  light.  Probably  this  was  in  the  town ; 
and  the  town,  I  suppose,  was  Janow,  which  is  Prus- 
sian, and  situated  on  the  frontier  between  that  coun- 
try and  Poland.  But  this  is  merely  a  guess,  based 
on  the  direction  my  captors  had  taken,  and  the  situa- 
tion in  which  I  afterwards  found  myself.  It  may 
have  been  some  large  village,  of  the  existence  and 
name  of  which  I  was  ignorant. 

Although  at  the  moment  all  was  quiet,  and  there 
were  no  signs  of  movement  behind,  I  could  not  hope 
that  the  discovery  of  our  escape  would  be  long  de- 
layed, and  I  saw  the  necessity  of  putting  as  great  a 
distance  as  possible  between  myself  and  the  enemy 
without  a  moment's  delay. 

I  turned  to  the  left,  because  that  seemed  the  dark- 
est part  of  the  country,  and  ran  as  fast  as  I  could; 
but  even  with  the  prospect  of  escape  to  urge  me  on, 
I  could  not  run  very  fast  owing  to  the  crippled  and 
painful  state  of  my  feet.  In  about  half  an  hour  I 
was  compelled  to  sit  down  for  a  rest ;  and  I  tried  to 
put  my  boots  on.  Owing  to  the  swollen  condition  of 
my  feet,  occasioned  by  running  rapidly  over  some 


A  PRISONER  IN  GERMAN  HANDS  317 

stony  ground,  I  found  that  I  could  not  do  this ;  and 
I  bound  up  the  injured  members  in  tufts  of  grass 
which  I  gathered  in  one  of  the  fields  I  passed  across ; 
and  in  this  plight  continued  to  walk  until  daylight. 

The  country  I  travelled  over  was  fields  and  open 
ground.  I  crossed  several  roads  and  pathways,  but 
was  afraid  to  keep  on  them  as  I  expected  that  pur- 
suing parties  would  use  them.  The  fields  were  ex- 
posed; and  when  light  broke  I  dodged  from  bush  to 
bush,  or  along  the  ditches.  There  are  no  hedges  or 
fences  in  this  country,  the  partitions  of  the  ground 
being  made  by  ditches.  Trees  or  bushes,  except  in 
the  woods,  are  very  scarce ;  but  there  are  a  few  along 
the  courses  of  the  brooks,  which  are  numerous  and 
often  serve  as  boundaries  to  the  fields.  As  they  have 
deep  banks,  I  often  ran  along  their  beds,  especially 
as  the  water  was  grateful  to  my  hot  and  painful  feet ; 
but  I  am  not  sure  that  I  did  wisely  to  resort  to  this 
method  of  obtaining  ease ;  for  afterwards  I  suffered 
so  severely  that  I  almost  despaired  of  being  able  to 
continue  my  journey. 

In  this  district  farms  and  peasants'  houses  were 
tolerably  numerous,  and  though  I  strove  to  avoid  it, 
a  woman  at  one  of  the  cottages  saw  me,  and  beckoned 
with  her  hand.  I  thought  it  would  be  wise  to  stop, 
especially  as  her  gestures  were  friendly.  She  took 
me  by  the  sleeve  and  led  me  into  the  cottage,  where 
two  men  were  seated  on  benches  at  a  rough  table, 
eating  their  breakfast.  A  large  jug  of  milk  and  some 
bread  and  meat  were  given  to  me,  food  I  was  much 
in  need  of,  and  while  I  was  eating  it  the  woman 


318       AN  ENGLISHMAN  IN  THE  RUSSIAN  RANKS 

bathed  my  feet  in  warm  water,  and  bound  them  m 
rags.  They  seemed  so  little  taken  by  surprise  at  my 
appearance,  that  I  fancied  I  was  expected ;  and  I  am 
pretty  sure  that  one,  or  both,  of  my  fellow-prisoners 
had  been  there  before  me,  and  kindly  put  these  people 
on  the  alert  to  assist  me. 

When  I  had  finished  eating,  the  woman  pointed 
to  a  ladder  leading  to  a  loft,  and  motioned  that  I 
should  ascend  it,  evidently  intending  that  I  should 
rest;  but  I  preferred  to  put  a  greater  distance  be- 
tween myself  and  the  Germans ;  though  I  think  it  is 
unlikely  that  they  would  pursue  a  fugitive  far  into 
an  enemy's  country.  So  I  thanked  these  kind  people 
as  well  as  I  could,  and  went  on  my  way.  The  men 
walked  about  two  English  miles  with  me,  and  pointed 
out  a  road  I  should  take,  leading  to  Przasnysz.  I 
understood  that  well  enough;  and  also  that  they 
blessed  me  in  the  name  of  the  Trinity  when  we 
parted. 

When  I  had  gone  some  distance  I  looked  back. 
The  men  were  standing  by  some  mounds  which  I 
guessed  covered  the  remains  of  slain  Russians,  and 
were  bareheaded  and  silently  praying  —  a  common 
custom  in  this  country,  where  people  more  often  ad- 
dress themselves  to  the  Almighty  in  the  open  air 
than  they  do  in  houses. 

The  road  was  over  an  undulating  plain,  with  a 
few  willow-trees  along  the  courses  of  the  streams,  but 
practically  no  cover  for  a  person  wishing  to  hide  him- 
self. I  hurried  on  as  fast  as  I  could  walk.  By  the 
time  the  sun  was  well  up  I  was  so  tired  that  I  was 


A  PRISONER  IN  GERMAN  HANDS  319 

glad  to  creep  into  a  fairly  dry  ditch,  where  I  slept 
soundly  until  nearly  evening  time.  Before  resum- 
ing my  journey  I  ate  a  small  loaf  which  the  woman 
had  put  in  my  pocket  when  I  left  the  cottage  in  the 
morning.  Then  I  took  a  road  running  eastwards  to 
Ostrolenka,  with  the  object  of  reaching  the  railway, 
and  also  in  the  hope  that  I  should  find  Russian  sol- 
diers to  whom  I  was  known.  There  is  no  railway  at 
Przasnysz :  and  though  I  believed  that  the  last-named 
place  was  still  in  the  hands  of  the  Russians,  I  was 
not  sure  of  it,  and  feared  that,  in  any  case,  I  should 
run  great  danger  of  meeting  parties  of  the  enemy  in 
that  direction.  It  so  happened,  however,  that  I  saw 
patrols  or  scouts  of  the  enemy  on  the  road  I  had  de- 
cided to  take.  They  consisted  of  small  bands  of 
Uhlans  and  dragoons,  the  strongest  of  them  not  more 
than  twenty  troopers  in  number.  They  were  prob- 
ably flying  parties,  at  a  great  distance  from  a  base; 
but  that  circumstance  made  them  none  the  less  dan- 
gerous to  me;  and  I  spent  the  greater  part  of  the 
day  lurking  in  cover.  It  is  a  fortunate  event  some 
of  these  men  did  not  discover  me;  for  I  was  com- 
pelled to  be  content  with  very  incomplete  conceal- 
ment. I  escaped  notice,  but  I  had  several  very  nar- 
row escapes ;  and  if  the  soldiers  had  been  as  alert  as 
they  ought  to  have  been  I  should  have  been  discov- 
ered. One  man  nearly  rode  over  me  as  I  lay  crouch- 
ing in  a  patch  of  sedge  by  the  side  of  a  tiny  brook; 
and  a  squad  of  eight  dragoons  passed  within  four  or 
five  yards  of  me,  giving  me  a  very  unpleasant  shock, 
as  I  had  no  weapon  for  defence,  except  a  stick  I  had 


320       AN  ENGLISHMAN  IN  THE  RUSSIAN  RANKS 

broken  from  a  tree.  The  Germans  had  stripped  me 
of  everything  I  carried,  my  money  excepted ;  and 
that,  fortunately,  I  had  successfully  hidden  by  stitch- 
ing it,  sovereign  by  sovereign,  under  a  black  braid 
stripe  down  the  seam  of  my  trousers. 


CHAPTEE  XXV 

ADVENTUEES  DURING  THE  EFFORT  TO  ESCAPE 

I  SOON  decided  that  it  was  necessary  to  ensure  my 
final  escape  by  biding  during  tbe  day,  and  travelling 
only  at  night.  The  country  was  full  of  small 
mounted  parties  of  the  enemy,  who  were  prying  into 
every  hole  and  corner  of  tbe  land.  During  a  week 
that  I  was  travelling  towards  Ostrolenka  (which 
could  not  be  farther  than  thirty  English  miles),  I 
saw  enough  to  show  what  my  fate  would  be  if  I  bad 
the  misfortune  to  fall  into  tbe  hands  of  the  fiends 
who  were  ravishing  the  country.  I  saw  several 
peasants  dragged  from  their  hovels  and  shot,  and  tbe 
women  treated  with  unnameable  barbarity.  I  beard 
children  screaming  in  fright  at  the  murder  of  their 
parents,  and  saw  homesteads  set  on  fire  and  burnt  to 
the  ground.  Outrages  of  all  kinds  were  committed 
by  small  squads  of  men  who  were  commanded  by 
unter-officers  (that  is,  corporals),  if  commanded  at 
all ;  and  in  saying  this  I  do  not  intend,  in  any  degree, 
to  exonerate  the  commissioned  ofiicers.  As  I  lay 
hidden  on  the  roof  of  a  barn  I  saw  a  young  beast, 
who  did  not  seem  to  be  more  than  twenty  years  of 
age,  ill-use  a  woman,  while  one  of  the  devils  he  com- 
manded kicked  away  her  children,  as  they  undoubt- 
edly were.     He  afterwards  threw  tbe  woman  to  bis 

321 


322       AN  ENGLISHMAN  IN  THE  RUSSIAN  RANKS 

men,  half  of  whom  abused  her  in  turn;  while  their 
commander  shot  a  white-haired  old  man  who  inter- 
fered, and  who  was  probably  her  father.  Other  men 
on  the  farm  had  been  previously  shot.  I  am  half- 
ashamed  to  narrate  the  incident,  and  have  to  admit 
that  I  did  not  interfere  —  I  could  not.  Starvina:, 
crippled  and  ill,  and  unarmed,  any  interposition  on 
my  part  would  only  have  added  another  drop  to  the 
horrible  pool  of  blood  that  lay  in  front  of  the  door- 
step. 

Afterwards  the  house  was  set  on  fire;  and  being 
old  and  built  mostly  of  timber,  it  burned  out  in  about 
half  an  hour.  While  it  was  in  full  blaze  the  hussars, 
a  dozen  in  number,  rode  away.  One  of  them  was 
badly  hurt,  having  been  shot,  I  think,  by  one  of  the 
men  the  Germans  afterwards  murdered. 

I  came  down  from  my  perch  amongst  the  bundles 
of  sticks  on  the  barn-roof  as  soon  as  the  murderers 
left  the  yard.  The  woman  had  thrown  herself  on 
the  body  of  one  of  the  men,  and  was  moaning  pite- 
ously:  the  children  hiding  their  faces  in  her  dress, 
and  sobbing  bitterly.  There  were  three  of  the  little 
mites,  the  eldest  about  twelve  years,  the  youngest  four 
or  five.  I  afterwards  found  a  boy  of  eight,  who  had 
hidden  himself,  and  was  paralyzed  with  fright. 

At  this  time  I  was  faint  with  hunger ;  and  finding 
it  impossible  to  arouse  the  woman,  who  was  nearly 
dead,  or  comfort  the  children,  I  entered  the  smoul- 
dering house  in  search  of  food,  if  any  had  escaped 
the  flames.  I  knew  it  was  the  Polish  custom  to  build 
the  pantry  of  stone,  and  projecting  beyond  the  house; 


ADVENTURES  DURING  THE  EFFORT  TO  ESCAPE       323 

and  I  hoped  that  some  fragments  of  bread  at  least 
were  still  to  be  found.  But  the  Germans  had  cleared 
the  place :  not  a  crumb  was  to  be  seen ;  and  as  I  was 
exploring  one  of  the  rooms,  I  broke  through  the  floor 
into  a  heap  of  ashes  at  white-heat.  I  extricated  my- 
self pretty  quickly,  but  nevertheless  my  already  frost- 
bitten feet  and  legs  were  burned ;  it  is  surprising  that 
I  continued  to  stand  and  walk  for  days  after  this 
occurrence. 

Meeting  with  no  success  indoors,  I  searched  about 
the  outhouses,  and  tried  to  knock  down  a  fowl.  The 
Germans  had  killed  all  those  that  were  tame  enough 
to  be  caught ;  but  in  the  barn,  on  the  roof  of  which 
I  had  lain  hid,  I  found  a  quantity  of  wheat,  stored  in 
bulk,  and  of  this  I  ate  as  much  as  I  could ;  and  filled 
my  pockets  for  future  occasions ;  and  when  the  fowls 
went  to  roost  at  evening  I  wrung  the  necks  of  several 
of  them  and  cooked  them  on  the  still  glowing  embers 
of  the  house.  I  also  found  a  saucepan  or  two,  and 
boiled  a  quantity  of  the  wheat,  which  enabled  me  to 
give  the  children  a  meal.  By  this  time  the  little 
ones  had  gained  full  confidence  in  me,  the  youngest 
one  particularly  so,  who  toddled  about,  chatting  to 
me,  no  doubt  wondering  why  I  did  not  reply  in  a  lan- 
guage she  could  understand.  The  boy  was  terribly 
unnerved,  and  the  woman  I  could  do  nothing  with, 
until  towards  night,  when  I  made  her  get  up  from 
the  body  on  which  she  had  lain  all  day,  and  pulled 
her  into  the  barn,  where  we  slept  all  that  night,  ly- 
ing on  old  sacks  —  at  least  the  children  and  I  slept. 
The  poor  woman  was  moaning  when  I  dropped  off, 


324       AN  ENGLISHMAN  IN  THE  RUSSIAN  RANKS 

and  still  moaning  when  I  awoke  in  the  morning. 

Before  retiring  I  dragged  the  bodies  of  the  three 
men  into  an  onthouse,  and  covered  them  over  with 
sacking,  of  which  there  was  plenty  stored  in  the 
barn.  I  then  closed  the  door  to  prevent  the  dogs 
getting  at  them,  and  looked  round  the  place,  which 
had  been,  I  should  think,  the  home  of  a  well-to-do 
small  farmer. 

In  the  morning  I  thought  the  best  thing  I  could  do 
would  be  to  take  the  children  to  a  house  I  could  see 
about  two  miles  across  the  country,  and  which  seemed, 
so  far,  to  be  intact.  I  contrived  to  make  the  woman 
understand  what  I  intended  to  do,  and  we  all  started 
together,  she  carrying  the  boy,  and  I  the  little  girl. 
It  took  us  quite  an  hour  to  reach  the  place,  on  account 
of  the  infirmities  from  which  we  suffered ;  and  one  of 
the  elder  girls  was  lame  from  the  kicking  she  had  re- 
ceived the  previous  day.  I  saw  that  she  had  a  bruise 
the  size  of  a  tea-saucer  on  her  little  body.  When 
the  day  of  Peace  comes,  will  the  Great  British  Nation 
treat  as  a  man  the  author  of  all  this  cruelty  and  wick- 
edness? I  shall  blush  to  be  an  Englishman  if  it 
does ;  or  if  British  soldiers  are  brought  out  to  salute 
the  Villain  when  he  is  forced  to  surrender. 

At  last  we  reached  the  house,  which  I  found  oc- 
cupied by  six  females,  three  of  them  young  girls,  and 
two  lads.  The  woman  I  had  brought  with  me  sup- 
pressed her  moans  and  sobs  to  explain  matters  to  these 
people ;  and  some  hot  tea  and  bread  and  butter  were 
given  to  me;  but  the  women,  who  were  evidently  in 
a  terrified  condition,  pushed  me  out  of  the  house,  and 


ADVENTURES  DURING  THE  EFFORT  TO  ESCAPE       325 

made  it  plain  that  they  wished  me  to  go.  They  were 
afraid  of  the  consequences  of  the  Germans  coming 
and  finding  me  on  their  premises.  So  I  kissed  the 
little  girls  and  went. 

As  I  passed  on  to  the  road  I  saw  the  hussars  (I 
believe  it  was  the  same  party)  riding  over  the  coun- 
try about  a  verst  away ;  and  I  lost  no  time  in  getting 
into  some  hollow  ground,  which  was  a  marsh,  with 
a  brook  running  through  it. 

I  had  with  me  about  a  peck  of  boiled  wheat,  which. 
I  carried  in  a  roughly  made  bag;  and  a  bill-hook, 
which  I  thought  might  come  in  handy  if  I  had  any 
more  personal  encounters  with  William  Hohenzol- 
lern's  murderers.  I  would  at  least  spare  myself  the 
fate  of  being  shot  like  a  dog  by  these  wretches. 

I  was  compelled  to  walk  some  distance  over  an 
open  country  this  day,  until  I  reached  some  stone 
quarries,  in  which  I  hid,  and  where  I  remained  sev- 
eral days  on  account  of  the  pain  I  suffered,  which 
rendered  walking  impossible.  During  this  time  I 
lived  on  the  boiled  corn  I  had  brought,  and  the  re- 
mains of  a  fowl,  cooked  at  the  burnt  farm. 

On  the  second  day  I  passed  in  this  quarry  I  saw 
six  Cossacks,  and  began,  jo^^ully,  to  make  my  way 
towards  them,  endeavouring  to  attract  their  atten- 
tion. I  had  not  got  a  hundred  yards,  when  I  saw 
nearly  twenty  German  cavalrymen  ride  out  from  be- 
hind some  buildings  and  charge  the  Cossacks.  For 
some  reason,  which  I  could  not  perceive,  the  Cossacks 
seemed  unable  to  escape.  They  made  a  gallant  fight, 
but  were  soon  exterminated.     The  Germans  made 


326       AN  ENGLISHMAN  IN  THE  RUSSIAN  RANKS 

no  attempt  to  take  prisoners :  they  butchered  the  six 
Kussians,  losing  two  dead  and  two  wounded  of  their 
own  number.  I  distinctly  saw  them  plunder  the 
dead;  and  then,  after  helping  their  injured  men  on 
horseback,  ride  away. 

At  nightfall  I  crept  out  and  visited  the  dead  bodies 
in  the  hope  that  life  might  be  left  in  some  of  them. 
It  was  useless.  They  were  all  fine  men;  but  had 
been  fearfully  disfigured.  One  man's  face  was 
slashed  to  pieces;  another  had  his  skull  split  down 
to  the  eyes.  Both  the  Germans  had  been  slain  by 
lance  thrusts.  There  was  also  a  dead  horse  lying 
by  one  of  the  men. 

I  hoped  that  some  of  the  firearms  had  been  left 
behind.  In  vain  I  searched:  not  even  a  pinch  of 
tobacco  remained  in  the  pockets  of  any  of  the  men. 
Even  the  ear-rings  had  been  torn  from  the  Cossacks. 
Manv  of  these,  and  other  Russian  soldiers,  wear 
golden  earrings. 

I  went  on  to  the  buildings  from  which  the  Ger- 
mans had  ridden  out.  The  house  was  deserted ;  and 
although  it  was  not  burnt,  the  brutal  invaders  had 
completely  wrecked  the  interior,  smashing  furniture, 
glass  and  pictures.  The  place  had  been  occupied  by 
persons  of  a  superior  class  to  the  peasant-farmers; 
and  I  noticed  some  female  fancy-work  lying  on  the 
floor  of  one  corner  of  a  room. 

The  whole  of  this  district,  though  not  deserted  by 
the  people,  was  in  a  cowed  state ;  the  peasantry,  and 
especially  the  well-to-do  classes,  were  afraid  to  show 
themselves  during  daylight.     Many  had  fled  to  the 


ADVENTURES  DURING  THE  EFFORT  TO  ESCAPE       327 

towns  and  villages,  and  a  good  many  had  been  wan- 
tonly murdered.  The  Poles  are  a  brave,  generous 
people,  and  my  heart  often  bled  for  them.  Their 
sorrows,  eclipsed  by  those  of  the  equally  brave  Bel- 
gians, and  dimmed  by  being  more  remote  in  point  of 
distance,  are  not,  I  think,  fully  realized  in  Eng- 
land; especially  as  they  are  defended  by  one  of  the 
largest  armies  in  the  world.  But  that  army,  large 
and  powerful  as  it  is,  has  not  been  able  to  defend 
them  from  the  tigerish  brutality  of  their  foes.  They 
have  suffered  terribly  —  the  word  is  not  strong 
enough.  The  wanton  miseries  inflicted  upon  them 
have  been  hellish.  I  have  long  known  the  Germans 
as  an  arrogant  and  extremely  sensual  people,  and 
their  learned  scientists  as  the  most  determined  mod- 
ern opponents  of  Christianity;  but  it  is  one  of  the 
surprises  of  my  life  to  see  them  sink  so  low  in  the 
scale  of  humanity  —  to  use  a  hackneyed  but  expres- 
sive phrase.  I  could  not  have  believed  that  the  Ger- 
man nation  would  bathe  itself  in  blood. 

At  this  house  I  scraped  together  a  few  fragments 
of  food,  and  got  a  couple  of  blankets,  which  I  much 
needed :  for  the  nights,  though  generally  clear  and 
bright,  were  fi'osty  and  bitterly  cold.  I  returned  to 
the  stone-quarry,  for  I  was  afraid  to  sleep  in  the 
house. 

The  moon  was  now  about  full;  and  when  the  sky 
was  not  cloudy,  it  was  so  light  at  night-time  that  I 
could  see  for  miles  across  the  country ;  and  I  noticed 
that  there  were  more  people  moving  about  than  I 
saw  in  the  daytime.     I  could  not  guess  at  their  busi- 


328       AN  ENGLISHMAN  IN  THE  RUSSIAN  RANKS 

ness,  as  there  were  no  shops  near  that  I  could  dis- 
cover. Some,  in  one  or  two  hamlets  I  had  ap- 
proached, were  looted  and  wrecked;  and  the  pro- 
prietors were  gone.  Probably  the  people  about  at 
night  were  on  the  prowl  for  anything  they  could 
pick  up :  for  although  I  obtained  a  little  food  at  some 
farms,  as  I  have  mentioned,  such  population  as  re- 
mained in  the  country  was  starving. 

I  remained  in  the  quarry  until  the  30th  of  April 
in  the  hope  that  the  condition  of  my  feet  would  im- 
prove. I  was  forced  at  last,  by  starvation,  to  make 
another  move  forward.  I  waited  until  night,  and 
then  hobbled  along  the  road  with  the  aid  of  a  rough 
crutch  I  had  contrived  out  of  a  forked  stick.  I  was 
so  exhausted  and  pain-racked  that  I  had  to  sit  do^vn 
and  rest  every  few  hundred  yards,  and  probably  I 
did  not  travel  more  than  five  miles  during  the  whole 
night.  During  this  time  I  passed  through  a  small 
village,  in  the  street  of  which  I  met  the  night-watch- 
man: for  this  antiquated  institution  still  survives  in 
Eussian  rural  districts.  He  stopped  and  questioned 
me;  but  he  was  a  silly,  good-humoured  old  soul,  much 
too  old  for  his  work,  and  though  I  did  not  understand 
a  tenth  of  what  he  said,  and  could  not  reply  to  a 
twentieth  of  it,  I  had  no  difficulty  in  getting  away 
from  him. 

I  was  more  fearful  of  the  soldiers.  Besides  a  few 
cavalry  scouts,  I  saw  a  company  of  infantry  march- 
ing along  the  road.  I  kept  out  of  their  way,  as  I 
could  not  tell  whether  they  were  Germans  or  Rus- 
sians; and  it  was  too  risky  a  business  to  approach 


ADVENTURES  DURING  THE  EFFORT  TO  ESCAPE      329 

near  enough  to  make  sure.  The  fact  that  they  had 
several  prisoners  with  them  made  me  think  they  were 
more  likely  to  be  foes  than  friends.  That  some 
small  military  movements  were  taking  place  in  the 
neighbourhood  was  proved  by  the  occasional  sound  of 
rifle-firing  which  I  heard  in  the  distance. 

The  snow  had  now  entirely  melted ;  but  there  was 
ice  every  morning,  which  thawed  as  the  sun  gained 
power.  In  the  middle  of  the  day  the  weather  was 
often  quite  hot;  but  the  ground  dried  very  slowly, 
and  there  were  often  dense  fogs  which  troubled  me 
greatly,  as  they  came  up  from  the  ground  at  night, 
just  the  time  I  wanted  to  be  moving :  and  on  one  occa- 
sion I  lost  my  way,  and  went  miles  astray.  I  had 
not  much  difficulty,  though,  in  getting  set  right  when 
such  accidents  happened.  I  would  repeat  the  name 
of  the  place  I  wanted  to  the  first  peasant  I  met,  and 
he  would  point  in  the  direction  I  was  to  take.  Some 
of  the  country-people  would  readily  communicate 
with  me ;  others  would  avoid  me  as  if  frightened. 

All  through  the  1st  May  I  lay  in  a  hole  which  I 
excavated  in  the  bank  of  a  brook,  and  hid  with  bushes 
when  I  was  in  it.  I  saw  nobody  at  all  on  this  day, 
and  the  only  sounds  I  heard  were  the  ringing  of  some 
bells  and  a  few  distant  shots. 

Most  of  the  fields  I  passed  over  were  sown  with 
corn;  but  sometimes  I  came  to  grassland;  and  there 
were  extensive  stretches  of  marshy  ground,  which 
was  often  already  covered  with  sedge  high  enough  to 
completely  hide  a  man.  As,  however,  it  was  grow- 
ing in  several  inches  of  water,  under  which  there  was 


330       AN  ENGLISHMAN  IN  THE  RUSSIAN  RANKS 

an  unlimited  quantity  of  mud,  taking  cover  in  it  was 
attended  with  much  discomfort.  I  was  forced  into 
it,  perhaps  a  dozen  times  a  day,  by  the  appearance  of 
cavalry  scouts  and  suspicious-looking  individuals. 
If  I  found  a  brook  running  in  the  direction  I  wished 
to  take  I  generally  followed  its  course  for  the  sake  of 
the  cover  its  dushes  afforded.  Once  I  passed  five  or 
six  hours  hiding  in  a  hollow  willow-stump. 

There  was  a  lot  of  wild-fowl  sheltering  in  the 
sedge,  chiefly  wild  ducks,  and  water-hens.  I  suc- 
ceeded in  catching  a  few  of  the  water-hens;  but  the 
ducks  eluded  the  stones  I  was  continually  throwing 
at  them;  and  though  I  saw  a  hundred  rabbits  and 
hares,  I  succeeded  in  knocking  over  only  one  hare. 
I  required  these  animals  for  food;  but  having  ob- 
tained them  I  was  for  a  time  puzzled  how  to  dress 
them,  as  I  was  afraid  to  make  a  fire  in  the  open. 
At  last  I  cooked  them  at  the  stove  of  a  deserted  house. 
Bread  I  had  literally  to  beg;  and  I  entered  six  or 
seven  farms  and  cottages  before  I  obtained  a  small 
supply. 

I  used  to  show  a  few  kopecs  and  point  to  my  mouth, 
an  antic,  or  pantomime,  that  was  at  once  understood. 
The  people  would  shake  their  heads  to  intimate  they 
had  no  food  to  spare ;  and  one  woman  held  up  a  poor 
little  pinched  baby  to  show  how  hardly  pressed  they 
were.  In  some  cases  I  believe  the  people  thought  I 
was  a  German,  as  I  could  not  speak  more  than  a  few 
disjointed  sentences  of  their  language.  Finally, 
however,  I  obtained  about  a  pound  of  unleavened 
bread,  for  which  the  money  was  refused. 


ADVENTURES  DURING  THE  JbJFFORT  TO  ESCAPE      331 

In  this  way  I  ultimately  arrived  uear  Ostrolenka, 
in  snch  a  state  of  exhaustion  and  suffering  that  I 
could  scarcely  drag  myself  over  the  ground.  I  was 
found,  and  made  a  prisoner  of,  by  some  Russian  cav- 
alry, and  taken  into  the  city,  which  is,  also,  a  third- 
class  or,  at  most,  second-class  fortress.  Here  I  was 
handed  over  to  the  civil  police  and  promptly  put  in 
prison.  That  night,  however,  a  medical  man  exam- 
ined my  feet,  which  were  afterwards  dressed  by  a 
male  nurse. 

The  next  morning  I  was  taken  before  a  magistrate, 
and  while  trying  to  explain  to  him  the  cause  of  my 
plight  a  Cossack  officer  came  forward,  and  at  once 
put  matters  right.  I  had  only  a  dim  recollection  of 
having  seen  this  man  before ;  but  he  did  me  the 
honour  of  having  a  better  remembrance.  Unfortun- 
ately, I  could  not  understand  all  that  he  said  to  the 
magistrate;  but  the  eifect  was  magical.  Everybody 
in  the  court  had  an  immediate  interest  in  me,  and  I 
was  at  once  taken  to  a  hospital  where  wounded  sol- 
diers were  being  attended  to,  and  treated  in  every 
respect  as  an  officer.     By  this  time  I  was  quite  ill. 

Two  or  three  days  afterwards  a  doctor  who  could 
speak  English  was  brought  to  my  bedside,  and  to  him 
I  gave  a  detailed  account  of  the  recent  experiences 
I  had  passed  through,  and  begged  him  to  apply  to  the 
proper  persons  to  have  me  sent  home,  as  I  was  unfit 
for  further  service.  He  promised  that  he  would  do 
this;  and  I  was  vexed  at  the  delay  that  ensued,  as 
every  day  I  seemed  to  grow  worse.  I  do  not  say 
that  I  was  not  well  nursed  and  looked  after;  but  I 


332       AN  ENGLISHMAN  IN  THE  RUSSIAN  RANKS 

must  admit  that  I  have  no  great  confidence  in  Rus- 
sian doctors  —  nor,  indeed,  in  any  foreign  medical 
men. 

Ostrolenka  was  full  of  troops,  but  I  did  not  learn 
to  what  corps  they  belonged.  The  forts  which  de- 
fend it  would  require  a  considerable  number  of  men 
to  man  them  properly;  and  I  do  not  think  the  place 
could  hold  out  many  hours  before  such  artillery  as 
the  Germans  use  in  their  siege  operations.  The  old 
"  carronades  "  of  l^elson's  days  were  sometimes  called 
"  smashers  " ;  much  more  appropriate  is  such  a  name 
to  the  monster  howitzers  which  the  Germans  use  to 
smash  up  their  opponent's  defensive  works;  and  yet 
I  am  not  one  of  those  who  are  appalled  by  the  de- 
struction effected  by  huge  guns.  Modern  forts  are 
not  strong  enough,  and  are  not  constructed  on  the 
principle  which  is  best  calculated  to  withstand  the 
battering  of  Ivrupp's  huge  ordnance;  but  they  may 
be  made  of  sufiicient  strength  to  defy  any  guns.  In 
a  competition  between  forts  and  gims,  forts  if  prop- 
erly constructed  and  defended  must  win.  By  "  de- 
fended "  I  mean  so  placed  that  they  cannot  be  sub- 
jected to  direct  fire.  This  can  always  be  done.  For 
if  they  cannot  be  placed  on  elevated  ground,  they  can 
be  sunk  in  it ;  and  my  experience  is  that  a  gun  sunk 
in  a  pit  is  the  most  difficult  of  all  marks  for  an  ar- 
tillerist to  hit.  In  fact,  I  do  not  think  it  can  be 
done,  except  by  a  chance  shot,  and  chance  shots  do 
not  win,  or  lose,  fortresses. 


CHAPTER  XXVI 

MY    LAST    DAYS    LPT    EUSSIA 

The  suggestion  was  made  that  I  should  remain  at 
Ostrolenka  until  I  was  cured ;  and  as  it  was  obvious 
that  this  would  mean  a  long  time  I  declined  the  in- 
tended kindness,  and  begged  to  be  sent  home  at  once. 
Accordingly  I  was  furnished  with  passes,  and  a  free 
permit  to  travel,  and  sent  to  Bialystok  on  the  10th 
May.  Although  this  place  is  only  eighty  versts  from 
Ostrolenka,  it  took  the  train  a  whole  day  to  reach  it. 
[We  were  continually  being  run  into  sidings  to  permit 
troop-  and  store-trains  to  pass.  Troops  were  being 
hurried  to  the  front  in  thousands ;  and  Bialystok  was 
crowded  with  what  appeared  to  be  a  whole  army  corps. 

The  authorities  were  too  busy  to  attend  to  me,  and 
I  lay  in  the  station  all  night.  The  next  morning  a 
police  official  took  me  to  some  barracks,  where  I  was 
well  fed  and  my  injuries  attended  to.  On  the  12th 
I  was  taken  in  an  ambulance  to  the  Grodno-Vilno 
terminus  (there  are  five  railway  termini  in  Bialy- 
stok) and  put  into  a  train  full  of  wounded  soldiers 
bound  for  Petrograd.  The  distance  to  Vilna  from 
Bialystok  is  about  170  versts:  it  took  us  thirty-nine 
hours  to  perform  it. 

I  left  the  train  at  Vilna;  but  there  was  nobody 

there  to  help  me  in  any  way.     Officials  looked  at  my 

paper  and  pointed  this  way  and  that,  but  gave  me  no 

333 


334       AN  ENGLISHMAN  IN  THE  RUSSIAN  RANKS 

real  help.  I  had  to  go  into  the  town  to  purchase  food 
and  a  few  necessaries.  The  city  was  even  more 
crowded  by  troops  than  Bialystok.  It  is  another 
great  railway  centre;  and  to  all  appearance  soldiers 
were  arriving  from  all  parts  of  the  vast  empire. 
Many  of  the  regiments  were  Siberians. 

While  in  the  streets  I  was  interfered  with  a  good 
deal  by  the  police ;  but  my  papers  were  always  found 
to  be  satisfactory.  English  gold  created  much 
amazement  among  the  tradesmen ;  but  I  succeeded  in 
passing  several  sovereigns. 

On  the  15th  I  bought  my  own  ticket  to  Riga;  but 
I  did  not  succeed  in  finding  a  train  to  that  place  until 
the  morning  of  the  16th.  From  Vilna  to  Riga  is 
about  200  English  miles.  I  entered  the  train  early 
in  the  morning.  There  were  only  four  passenger- 
cars  :  the  remainder,  a  dozen,  or  fourteen,  in  number, 
were  goods  vans  and  trucks.  In  the  carriage  I  se- 
lected, the  only  passengers  were  three  men  and  a 
woman. 

I  was  so  tired  that  I  went  to  sleep  soon  after  I  had 
sat  down,  and  when  I  awoke  the  train  was  just  start- 
ing. It  was  then  nearly  evening,  so  we  had  been 
standing  outside  the  station  nearly  all  day.  I  dozed 
at  frequent  intervals:  and  so  did  the  train:  that  is, 
it  stopped,  on  an  average,  about  every  half -hour ;  but 
very  seldom  at  a  station. 

When  morning  broke  I  eagerly  looked  out  of  the 
carriage-window.  The  prospect  was  a  wide  plain, 
with  only  odd  trees  on  it,  and  houses  scattered  about 
between  two  villages.     I  had  no  idea  of  our  locality, 


MY  LAST  DAYS  IN  RUSSIA  335 

but  had  hoped  we  were  nearing  Riga.  .  Of  this,  how- 
ever, there  were  no  signs,  and  I  muttered  my  disap- 
pointment. My  fellow-passengers  looked  at  me  cu- 
riously, but  did  not  speak.  So  far  I  had  not  heard 
the  sounds  of  their  voices,  and  I  have  noticed  that 
foreigners  on  a  journey,  as  a  rule,  are  not  more  talka- 
tive than  English  people. 

Two  hours  later  we  arrived  at  Dunaburg,  which  is 
a  large  town  and  a  considerable  railway  centre.  It 
was  crowded  by  soldiers;  and  field  artillery  were 
entraining  in  large  numbers.  Two  passengers  got 
out  of  the  carriage  here,  and  six  others  entered ;  but 
when  we  started  again  I  do  not  think  there  were  more 
than  twenty  people  in  the  whole  train.  The  popula- 
tion of  the  country  was  evidently  not  fleeing  coast- 
wise. 

We  were  backed  into  a  siding  and  kept  there  six 
hours.  During  the  night  we  were  more  often  sta- 
tionary than  moving,  and  at  daybreak  on  the  morning 
of  the  18th  were  still  only  crawling  along  the  line. 
At  several  small  stations  the  train  was  stopped  to  be 
overhauled  by  police  officials.  They  closely  ques- 
tioned all  the  passengers.  When  it  was  discovered 
that  I  could  not  speak  much  Russian,  I  was  at  once, 
and  very  roughly  and  rudely,  hauled  on  to  the  plat- 
'  form ;  and  my  papers  read  and  reread  several  times ; 
and  vised  by  a  police  officer.  Then  I  was  permitted 
to  re-enter  the  train,  and  proceed  on  my  journey. 

As  we  ran  slowly  onward  I  saw  several  large  en- 
campments of  troops  in  the  fields  by  the  side  of  the 
line;  and  hundreds  of  men  were  being  drilled  and 


336       AN  ENGLISHMAN  IN  THE  RUSSIAN  RANKS 

exercised.  Many  of  them  had  so  awkward  a  bearing 
as  to  suggest  that  they  had  had  no  previous  training : 
and  I  saw  sufficient,  during  my  stay  in  Russia,  to 
show  that  the  State  is  too  poor  to  embody  and  in- 
struct the  whole  of  her  male  population.  I  do  not 
believe,  indeed,  that  more  than  half  the  conscripts 
are  trained.  This  would  not  be  an  unmixed  evil  if 
the  men  were  selected,  as  they  are  supposed  to  be,  and 
the  most  fit  draughted  to  military  service;  but  I 
think  there  is  a  great  deal  of  substitution,  rich  men 
finding  substitutes.  This  cannot  be  otherwise  than 
bad  for  the  service. 

We  arrived  at  Riga  at  midnight  on  the  18th,  and 
I  was  again  subjected  to  the  usual  police  examina- 
tion and  cross-questioning.  Here,  however,  I  found 
several  officials  who  could  speak  English  quite  flu- 
ently, and  so  I  had  no  difficulty  in  making  my  wishes 
known,  but  was  given  the  disquieting  assurance  that 
there  was  no  prospect  whatever  of  my  being  able  to 
leave  the  Baltic. 

It  was  rapidly  becoming  a  matter  of  life  or  deatK 
for  me  to  get  home.  I  was  so  ill  and  exhausted  that 
I  could  only  stand  with  difficulty ;  and  my  funds  were 
running  so  short  that  I  could  bear  the  expenses  of 
livinc:  at  an  hotel  for  onlv  a  few  davs.  Having  re- 
ceived  permission,  therefore,  I  went  down  to  the 
wharves  with  a  policeman  to  look  for  a  boat,  the  regu- 
lar packets  having  ceased  running. 

I  do  not  think  that  my  further  movements  can  have 
much  interest ;  but  I  may  just  state  that  all  I  could  do 
at  Riga  was  to  persuade  a  fisherman  to  run  me  over 


MY  LAST  DAYS  IN  RUSSIA  337 

to  Gothland  for  the  sum  of  twenty  roubles.  The 
little  voyage  of  about  200  miles  was  commenced  on 
Thursday  the  20th  May,  and  was  performed  in  much 
trepidation  for  fear  of  the  German  cruisers,  several 
of  which  were  reported  to  be  in  this  part  of  the  Baltic 
—  I  do  not  know  on  what  grounds.  We  saw  nothing 
of  them;  and  arrived  at  Slitehaum  soon  after  day- 
break on  the  23rd,  the  winds  having  been  against  us 
during  a  great  part  of  the  voyage. 

At  Slitehaum  I  took  the  train  to  Wisby,  after 
some  trouble  with  the  local  officials,  the  inevitable 
thing,  it  seems  to  me,  in  all  Continental  travel.  My 
papers,  contrary  to  my  wishes,  had  been  retained  by 
the  Russian  police  at  Riga;  and  they  had  given  me 
a  passport  which  did  not  seem  to  be  quite  satisfactory 
to  the  Custom-house  officer  at  Gothland.  He  was 
much  exercised  in  mind  by  the  lack  of  the  usual  im- 
pedimenta of  a  traveller,  and  accepted  my  explana- 
tions with  palpable  suspicion.  After  a  delay  of  four 
hours,  he  permitted  me  to  proceed;  and  on  reaching 
Wisby  I  took  the  Swedish  packet-boat  to  Stockholm. 

At  Riga  I  had  persuaded  the  police  to  enter  me 
on  the  passport  as  an  American :  not  quite  a  straight- 
forward thing  to  do,  perhaps,  but  a  ruse  de  guerre 
which,  I  think,  the  circumstances  in  which  I  was 
placed  fully  justified. 

I  am  not  a  prophet,  nor  am  I  going  to  set  myself 
up  as  one.  I  do  not  know  how  long  the  war  is  going 
to  last  —  it  depends  on  circumstances.  If  the  Ger- 
mans get  the  run  of  corn-gTowing  Russia,  and  the 
Allies  generally  do  not  materially  increase  their  go 


338       AN  ENGLISHMAN  IN  THE  RUSSIAN  RANKS 

and  their  forces,  it  will  last  for  years.  Properly  set 
about,  it  might  end  with  this  year.  It  is  not  being 
properly  set  about.  I  do  not  presume  to  say  what 
military  action  should  be  taken;  but  the  supply  of 
Germany  with  food  and  material  is  of  the  first  im- 
portance to  her,  and  should  be  put  a  peremptory  stop 
to.  There  are  those  who  will  argue  that,  because  Ger- 
many sinks  neutral  ships,  it  follows  that  the  neutrals 
who  suffer  must  necessarily  be  Germany's  enemies. 
This  is  a  mistake.  The  idea  entertained  is  that  "  ac- 
cidents will  happen,"  and  the  sufferers  believe  that 
in  the  end,  Germany,  or  Britain,  will  recompense 
them.  I  exempt  the  United  States  from  this  atti- 
tude; but  their  case  is  peculiar.  In  the  first  place, 
they  are  very  anxious  to  keep  out  of  European  com- 
plications: they  have  also  a  large  German  popula- 
tion, including  those  of  Teutonic  extraction;  and 
some  of  those  highly  placed  in  America  have  Ger- 
manic tendencies  and  sjonpathies. 

I  will  not  enter  further  into  the  political  aspect  of 
this  Great  War :  and  concerning  the  military  outlook 
I  have  but  to  note  that  the  British  losses  alone  amount 
to  a  far  greater  number  than  the  entire  English  Army 
consisted  of  on  the  day  war  broke  out,  to  convince 
every  thinking  man  that  we  are  in  a  very  serious 
position :  and  that  the  fate  of  this  vast  empire  cannot 
be  left  to  weak  drafts  erratically  raised,  which,  how- 
ever heroic  their  bravery,  are  not  powerful  enough 
to  meet  the  situation  with  a  full  assurance  of  that 
victory  without  which  no  sane  Englishman  ought  to 
be  satisfied.     To  put  500,000  men  into  the  field,  and 


MY  LAST  DAYS  IN  RUSSIA  339 

keep  their  numbers  up  to  500,000,  cannot  possibly 
iiave  the  same  effect  as  putting  1,000,000  face  to  face 
with  the  enemy  in  the  first  place :  and  1,000,000  can- 
not have  a  fourth  of  the  striking-power  2,000,000 
would  have.  There  is  a  progressive  ratio  in  the  num- 
bers of  a  military  force :  a  fact  that  is  too  often  over- 
looked: and  bringing  them  up  in  driblets  can  only 
result  in  their  being  beaten  in  detail.  One  strong 
blow  has  more  real  efficacy  than  a  dozen  weak  ones ; 
and  in  military  affairs  the  full  force  should  be  used 
at  the  very  commencement  of  hostilities. 

At  the  moment  of  writing  Germany  is  gaining 
ground,  not  losing  it :  and  her  own  territory  is  abso- 
lutely free  of  invaders.  While  this  state  of  things 
exists,  no  man,  expert  or  otherwise,  can  predict  the 
ultimate  end  of  the  war.  A  single  accident  might 
have  very  wide-reaching  and  very  terrible  effects. 

From  Stockholm  I  went  to  Gothenburg ;  and  there 
decided  that  my  best  way  of  reaching  England  was  to 
take  a  passage  on  a  Swedish  ice-ship  which  I  found 
to  be  on  the  point  of  sailing  for  Gravesend.  How- 
ever, when  we  got  off  the  Dogger  Bank  we  ran 
amongst  a  fleet  of  Hull  trawlers;  and  I  forsook  the 
Swede  for  a  British  fishing-boat,  which  landed  me  at 
Hull,  "  stone-broke,"  in  more  ways  than  one.  I  was 
almost  too  ill  to  stand;  and  when  I  arrived  home  I 
found  my  house  empty.  'Not  one  letter  of  the  many 
I  wrote  while  in  Poland  reached  my  family ;  and  one 
I  posted  in  Sweden  did  not  reach  England  until  three 
days  after  my  own  arrival  in  my  native  land.  My 
wife  supposed  that  I  was  a  prisoner  in  Germany,  or 


340       AN  ENGLISHMAN  IN  THE  RUSSIAN  RANKS 

dead ;  and  few  of  my  friends  expected  to  see  me  again. 
One  of  the  first  I  went  to  in  search  of  my  wife  did 
not  know  me,  so  ragged  and  woebegone  was  my  ap- 
pearance. A  little  rest  has  done  wonders  towards 
restoring  my  usual  health  and  strength ;  but  I  am 
given  to  understand  that  it  will  be  a  long  time  before 
I  am  able  to  use  my  feet ;  and  some  sharp  twinges  of 
rheumatism  from  which  I  suffer  indicate  that  old 
boys  are  not  quite  so  fit  for  campaigning  as  young 
ones.  I  hope  many  of  the  youngsters  will  take  the 
hint. 

There  has  been  some  suppression  of  the  names  o£ 
places  and  localities  in  this  book,  and  a  few  other  pre- 
cautions have  been  taken  in  its  construction.  It 
must  be  remembered  that  the  war  is  far  from  over 
yet,  and  that  there  is  an  obligation  on  all  writers  to 
be  careful  not  to  deal  too  freely  with  facts  and  inci- 
dents of  some  kinds.  It  may  be  scarcely  necessary 
to  mention  this ;  but  in  case  a  certain  amount  of  reti- 
cence may  be  noticed  in  a  few  places,  it  is  as  well  to 
give  a  reason  for  it.  I  am  not  a  practised  writer; 
and  I  have,  in  some  matters,  followed  the  advice  of 
those  who  are  better  qualified  to  judge  what  should, 
and  what  should  not,  be  put  into  a  book.  But  I  have 
told  my  own  tale,  and  told  it  in  my  own  way ;  and  I 
hope  it  will  be  found  to  merit  some  attention  as  the 
unvarnished  story  of  an  eye-witness. 

THE    EIH) 


FOUR  TIMELY  BOOKS  OF 
INTERNATIONAL  IMPORTANCE 

I  ACCUSE   0' ACCUSE!)   By  a   German.     A    Scathing 
Arraignment  of  the  German  War  Policy. 

'  At  this  vital  time  in  the  nation's  history  every  patriotic  American 
should  read  and  reread  this  wonderful  book  and  learn  the  absurdity 
of  the  German  excuse  that  they  wanted  a  "Place  in  the  Sun." 

Learn  how  the  German  masses  were  deluded  with  the  idea  that 
they  were  making  a  defensive  war  to  protect  the  Fatherland. 

Let  the  author  of  this  illuminating  book  again  show  the  sacrilege 
of  claiming  a  Christian  God  as  a  Teutonic  ally  and  riddle  once  more 
the  divine  right  of  kings. 

PAN-GERMANISM.     By  Roland  G.  Usher. 

The  clear,  graphic  style  gives  it  a  popular  appeal  that  sets  it  miles 
apart  from  the  ordinary  treatise,  and  for  the  reader  who  wishes  to 
get  a  rapid  focus  on  the  world  events  of  the  present,  perhaps  no 
book  written  will  be  more  interesting. 

It  is  the  only  existing  forecast  of  exactly  the  present  development 
of  events  in  Europe.  It  is,  besides,  a  brisk,  clear,  almost  primer- 
like reduction  of  the  complex  history  of  Europe  during  the  last  forty 
years  to  a  simple,  connected  story  clear  enough  to  the  most  casual 
reader. 

THE  CHALLENGE  OF  THE  FUTURE.   By  Roland 
G.  Usher. 

A  glance  into  America's  future  by  the  man  who,  in  his  book'PAN- 
GERMANISM,  foretold  with  such  amazing  accuracy  the  coming  of 
the  present  European  events.  An  exceedingly  live  and  timely  book 
that  is  bound  to  be  read  and  discussed  widely  because  it  strikes  to 
the  heart  of  American  problems,  and  more  especially  because  it  hits 
right  and  left  at  ideas  fliat  have  become  deep-seated  convictions  in 
many  American  minds. 

THE  EVIDENCE  IN  THE  CASE.       By  James  M. 
Beck,  LL.  D-t   Formerly  Assistant  Attorney-General 
of  the  United  States,  Author  of  the   "War  and  Hu- 
manity.'*'    With  an  Introduction  by  the  Hon.  Joseph 
H.  Choate,Late  U.  S.  Ambassador  to  Great  Britain. 
No  work  on  the  War  has  made  a  deeper  impression  throughout 
the  world  than  "The  Evidence  in  the  Case,"  a  calm,  dispassionate, 
but  forceful   discussion  of  the  moral  responsibility  for  the  present 
war  as  disclosed  by  the  diplomatic  papers.  Arnold  Bennett  says  that 
it  "is  certainly  by  far  the  most  convincing  indictment  of  Germany  in 
existence." 

GROSSET  &  DUNLAP,   Publishers,  NEW  YORK 


JOHN  FOX,  JR'S. 

STORIES   OF  THE  KENTUCKY  MOUNTAINS 

May  be  had  v/hsrsver  booSts  are  sold.      Ask  for  Grosset  end  Dunlap's  list. 


THE  TRAIL   OF  THE    LONESOME   PINE. 


THE     LITTLE 


Illustrated  by  F.  C.  Yohn. 

The  "lonesome  pine"  from  wMch  the 
story  takes  its  name  was  a  tdl  tree  that 
stood  in  solitary  splendor  on  a  mountain 
top.  The  fame  of  the  pine  lured  a  yoqng 
engineer  through  Kentucky  to  catch  the 
trail,  and  when  he  finally  climbed  to  its 
shelter  he  found  not  only  the  pine  but  the 
foot-prints  of  a  girl.  And  the  girl  proved 
to  be  lovely,  piquant,  and  the  trail  of 
these  girlish  foot-prints  led  the  young 
engineer  a  madder  chase  than  "the  trail 
of  the  lonesome  pine." 

SHEPHERD    OF    KINGDOM    COME 


Illustrated  by  F.  C.  Yohn. 

This  is  a  story  of  Kentucky,  in  a  settlement  known  as  "King- 
dom Come."  It  is  a  life  rude,  semi-barbarous;  but  natural 
and  honest,  from  which  often  springs  the  flower  of  civilization. 

*'  Chad."  the  "little  shepherd"  did  not  know  who  he  wasnor 
■whence  he  came — he  had  just  wandered  from  door  to  door  since 
early  childhood,  seeking  shelter  with  kindly  mountaineers  who 
gladly  fathered  and  mothered  this  waif  about  whom  there  was 
such  a  mystery — a  charming  waif,  by  the  way,  who  could  play 
the  banjo  better  that  anyone  else  in  the  mountains. 

A  KNIGHT   OF  THE    CUMBERLAND.. 

Illustrated   by  F.  C.  Yohn. 

The  scenes  are  laid  along  the  waters  of  the  Cumberland* 
the  lair  of  moonshiner  and  feudsman.  The  knight  is  a  moon- 
shiner's son,  and  the  heroine  a  beautiful  girl  perversely  chris- 
tened "The  Blight."  Two  impetuous  young  Southerners'  fall 
under  the  spell  of  "The  Blight's  "  charms  and  she  learns  what 
a  large  part  jealousy  and  pistols  have  in  the  love  making  of  the 
mountaineers. 

Included  in  this  volume  is  "  Hell  fer-Sartain"  and  other 
stories,  some  of  Mr.  Fox's  most  entertaining  Cumberland  valley 
narratives. 


Ask  for  complete  free  list  of  C.  &  D.  Pof)ular  Copyrighted  Fiction 


Grosset  &  Dunlap,  526  West  26th  St.,  New  York 


STORIES  OF  RARE  CHARM  BY 

GENE  STRATTON-PQRTE 

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^lADDIEgl 

rtf  7ATRUEBUJ  E  SIDRl 


THE  HARVESTER. 


LADDIE. 


Illustrated  by  Herman  Pfeifer. 

This  is  a  bright,  cheery  tale  with  thi 
scenes  laid  in  Indiana.  The  story  is  tolc 
by  Little  Sister,  the  youngest  member  oi 
a  large  family,  but  it  is  concerned  not  so 
much  with  childish  doings  as  with  the  love 
affairs  of  older  members  of  the  family. 
Chief  among  them  is  that  of  Laddie,  tha 
older  brother  whom  Little  .Sister  adores, 
and  the  Princess,  an  English  girl  who  has 
come  to  live  in  the  neighborhood  and  about 
whose  family  there  hangs  a  mystery^ 
There  is  a  wedding  midway  in  the  book 
and  a  double  wedding  at  the  close. 
Illustrated  by  W.  L.  Jacobs. 

"The  Harvester,"  David  Langston,  is  a  man  of  the  woods  and 
fields,  who  draws  his  living  from  the  prodigal  hand  of  Mother 
Natm'e  herself.  If  the  book  had  nothing  in  it  but  the  splendid  figure 
of  this  man  it  would  be  notable.  But  when  the  Girl  comes  to  his 
"Medicine  Woods,"  and  the  Harvester's  whole  being  realizes  that 
this  is  the  highest  point  of  life  which  has  come  to  him — there  begins 
a  romance  of  the  rarest  idyllic  quality. 
Si"RECKLES,     Decorations  by  E.  Stetson  Crawford. 

Freckles  is  a  nameless  waif  when  the  tale  opens,  but  the  way  ill 
Sfrhich  he  takes  hold  of  life;  the  nature  friendships  he  forms  in  the 
great  Limberlost  Swamp;  the  manner  in  which  everyone  who  meets 
him  succumbs  to  the  charm  of  his  engaging  personality;  and  his 
love-story  with  "The  Angel"  are  full  of  real  sentimentr 

A  GIRL  OF  THE  LIMBERLOST. 

Illustrated  by  Wladyslaw  T.  Brenda. 

The  story  of  a  girl  of  the  Michigan  woods;  a  buoyant,  lovable 
type  of  the  self-reliant  American.  Her  philosophy  is  one  of  love  acxj 
kindness  towards  all  things;  her  hope  is  never  dimmed.  And  by  the 
eheer  beauty  of  her  soul,  and  the  purity  of  her  vision,  she  wins  frcnj 
barren  and  unpromising  surroundings  those  rewards  of  high  courage, 

AT  THE  FOOT  OF  THE  RAINBOW. 
Illustrations  in  colors  by  Oliver  Kemp. 

The  scene  of  this  charming  i  ove  story  is  laid  in  Central  Indiana 
The  story  is  one  of  devoted  friendship,  and  tender  self-sacrificlne 
iove.  The  novel  is  brimful  of  the  most  beautiful  word  painting  at 
nature,  and  its  pathos  and  tender  sentiment  will  endear  it  to  all. 


Grosset  &  Dunlap,     Publishers,      New  York 


NOVELS  OF  FRONTIER  LIFE  BY 

WILLIAM  MacLEOD    RAINE 

HANDSOMELY  BOUND  IN  CLOTH.     ILLUSTRATED. 
May  be  had  wherever  books  are  sold.     Ask  for  Grosset  and  Dunlap's  list 
MAVERICKS, 


A  tale  of  the  western  frontier,  where  the  "nastier,"  whose  dep 
redations  are  so  keenly  resented  by  the  early  settlers  of  the  range, 
abounds.    One  of  the  sweetest  love  stories  ever  told.^ 

A  TEXAS  RANGER. 


How  a  member  of  the  most  dauntless  border  police  force  carried 
law  into  the  mesquit,  saved  the  life  of  an  innocent  man  after  a  series 
©f  thrilling  adventures,  followed  a  fugitive  to  Wyoming,  and  then 
passed  through  deadly  peril  to  ultimate  happiness. 

WYOMING. 

In  this  vivid  story  of  the  outdoor  West  the  author  has  captured 
the  breezy  charm  of  "cattleland,"  and  brings  out  the  turbid  life  of 
the  frontier  with  all  its  engaging  dash  and  vigor. 

RIDGWAY  OF  MONTANA. 

The  scene  is  laid  in  the  mining  centers  of  Montana,  where  poli- 
tics and  mining  industries  are  the  religion  of  the  country.  The 
political  contest,  the  love  scene,  and  the  fine  character  dr^-wmg  give 
this  story  great  strength  and  charm.  » 

BUCKY  O'CONNOR, 

Every  chapter  teems  with  'wholesome,  stirring  adventures,  re- 
plete with  the  dashing  spirit  of  the  border,  told  with  dramatic  da£!2 
and  absorbing  fascination  of  style  and  plot. 

CROOKED  TRAILS  AND  STRAIGHT. 

A  story  of  Arizona;  of  swift-riding  men  and  daring  outlaws;  of 
a  bitter  feud  between  cattle-men  and  sheep-herders.  The  heroine 
's  a  most  unusual  woman  and  her  love  story  reaches  a  culmination 
that  is  fittingly  characteristic  of  the  great  free  West. 

BRAND  BLOTTERS. 

A  ntory  of  the  Cattle  Range.  This  story  brings  out  the  turbid 
life  of  the  frontier,  with  all  its  engaging  dash  and  vigor,  with  a  charm- 
ing love  interest  running  through  its  320  pages. 


Grosset  &  Dunlap,      Publishers,      New  York 


V 


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